Due to the Coriolis Effect, why wouldn't all wind appear to bend toward the West?

Question

Because the Earth moves counterclockwise from "above," why doesn't wind all deflect West? I understand that the northeast and southeast tradewinds move west, but why do the Westerlies in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres defy the Earth's Coriolis Effect and move eastward? I read explanations about how the high and low pressure affect the winds, but I still don't quite get it.

Answer 1

Coriolis force deflects the wind to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.Accordingly the trade winds in the nothern hemisphere which blow from the north is deflected to the right to become north-east wind.Similarly the trade winds  in the southern hemisphere which blow from south is deflected to the left to become south-east winds.

The westerlies in the northern hemisphere blow from south and are deflected to the right to become south-west winds and similarly,the westerlies in the southern hemisphere which blow from the north is deflected to the left to become north-west winds.So westerlies do not defy the coriolis force.

Usually winds blow from high pressure area towards low pressure area.

Coriolis force which is created due to the rotation of any object about its axis causes the deflection in a sense opposite to that of the rotation.

Take the example of the polar easterlies in the northern hemisphere.

They blow from north and are deflected towards east(ie. to the right) to become north-easterly winds against the direction of the rotation (ie west to east) of the earth(similar to trade winds).

It may be mentioned that the coriolis force is maximum at the poles and zero at the equator.

Hence we cannot expect  all winds to be deflected to the west.The fact whether the wind is from north or south should also be taken account.

Answer 2

Here is a good site on Global Winds.

http://www.newmediastudio.org/DataDiscov...

Answer 3

The Coriolis Effect is a fairly weak force.  It determines things like which directions large scale things, like hurricanes and trade winds, bend or rotate in.  They might even effect which direction a tornado rotates in but that is less certain.  

A common misunderstanding is that they are too weak to effect which direction the water rotates in you tub drain or toilet.

Answer 4

this accounts for the deflection of winds into circular systems on the earth. in the northern hemisphere for example, winds moving inwards towards the centre of a low pressure region acquire an anticlockwise rotation relative to the earth,s surface. this is because air travelling northwards away from the equator arrives with more momentum in an eastward direction than is appropriate to its new latitude, and conversely for air travelling southwards away from the north pole.