Yesterday we talked about the Coriolis effect, which causes things moving on the Earth to deflect from their original destination, due to the Earth’s spinning motion. We used an unrealistic example of throwing a tennis ball—however you can’t actually throw far enough for the Coriolis effect to matter for playing catch.
Where the Coriolis effect does matter is in large weather patterns. If there’s a spot of low air pressure, the air around the low will move in toward it. Because of the Coriolis effect, which causes things in the northern hemisphere to deflect to the right, this moving air will curve. The curving air causes the low pressure spot to rotate, and this is called cyclonic motion.
If the low is in the northern hemisphere, as in the picture, all the air moving in curves right and makes the low pressure area rotate counterclockwise. And in the southern hemisphere, the opposite is true, and it would rotate clockwise.
