On March 10, a stiff wind, along with snow squalls coming out of the northwest headed our way. Later that night the wind blew hard, hard enough that the banging of the shutters kept me awake.

That Monday, the wind continued to blow, with gusts up to 50 miles per hour, which caused many homes to be without electricity for a short time.

The wind, which is an important aspect in our lives, has been given many names, 127 names to be exact. Names such as El Nino Santana, chinook, sirocco, and the sigh in the sky are only a few. Perhaps the most famous of the winds is the sirocco wind, which blows across the Mediterranean Area.

The sirocco wind blows reddish-colored sand over Europe. In the year 582, a sirocco wind blew so much of this reddish-colored sand across Europe it became known as “a shower of blood.” This caused such a fright that the people repented their sins and tore the bloodstained clothing from their bodies in the morning.

What makes the wind move? The answer is when air moves from high pressure to low pressure. When this happens in nature it is known as diffusion.

The next time you feel the wind blow, think about where it’s going, and what temperatures and pressures are causing it to do that.

When in the woods I’m sure you have heard both the moaning of the wind through the bare branches of the trees and the whispering of the wind through a grove of evergreen trees. The moan heard as the wind passed through the trees was evidence of the interchange of energy between the wind and the trees. The wind loses some of its strength by friction as it passes the needles, leaves, branches and even the bark of the trees.

Experiments have shown that the wind will lose 20-40% of its original force after passing through 100 feet of a mature forest. The wind can be reduced as much as 93% after passing through 400 feet of a mature forest. To prove this, go out on the next cold and windy day and find a field. Stand at the edge of the field and face towards the wind. If the temperature is low, you won’t be able to stand facing the wind for very long since the wind will be whipping the heat away from your body, and you will become cold.

Next find a mature stand of trees (preferably evergreen trees) and walk into it and stand facing the wind. You’ll be amazed at how much warmer you will feel.

All the features on Earth slow the wind down. Even rocks, which appear solid to us, are quite porous, with billions of tiny pores that allow the air to move in and out. As the wind passes over a rock, drops of moisture are deposited in the rock’s pores. The moisture freezes as it expands, causing the surface of the rock to have tiny splits. After the tiny fragments are washed away by the rain, they appear as little grains of sand, which could be blown away by the wind.

Through the years, the atmosphere breaks up the rocks and tears down the mountains, creating an ideal place for plant and animal life on this earth.

The Appalachian Mountains, which are the oldest mountains in the United States, are 1,300 miles long and run from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Alabama. At one time, the Appalachian Mountains were higher than the Rocky Mountains of the west, however, through the centuries they have been worn down and made smooth by the wind, rain and frost.

This interchange, of the wind and rain with the earth and its features, influences our weather, which affects the wind that in turn affects the earth’s features in a never-ending cycle. The interaction of the air and earth would be much simpler if the earth was uniformly covered with water. The smooth surface of the seas causes only minor disturbances to the air flow. Then, prevailing winds would blow as reliably as the trade winds do now. Weather would not be as extreme because water does not warm up or cool off as rapidly as land.

Our most extreme weather conditions are not found at the poles or the equator but occur on large land masses away from our seas. Less energy is required to raise the temperature of the soil, and, in the evening, when the sun sets, the land cools off rapidly. Large bodies of water, such as lakes and oceans, tend to keep temperatures from going to such extremes.

The following are some of the many sayings about the wind:

-There’s something in the wind, meaning something is about to happen

-To get one’s second wind, meaning to recover and go about one’s pursuit, with renewed vigor

-To take the wind out of one’s sails, meaning to frustrate someone by using his own material or methods. Literally, this means to sail to the windward of a ship and rob its sails of the wind

-A windfall, meaning unexpected good luck

-A windbag, meaning a long-winded person that inflates phrases and promises far more than he can perform

-Three sheets to the wind meaning that a person is very drunk. A sheet to the wind is a colloquial nautical expression for being tipsy. Therefore, to have three sheets to the wind is to be very drunk.