Wind
Wind speeds over the Arctic Basin and the western Canadian Archipelago average between 4 and 6 metres per second (14 and 22 kilometres per hour, 9 and 13 miles per hour) in all seasons. Stronger winds do occur in storms, often causing whiteout conditions, but they rarely exceed 25 m/s (90 km/h, 55 mph) in these areas (Przybylak 2003).
During all seasons, the strongest average winds are found in the North-Atlantic seas, Baffin Bay, and Bering and Chukchi Seas, where cyclone activity is most common. On the Atlantic side, the winds are strongest in winter, averaging 7 to 12 m/s (25 to 43 km/h, 16 to 27 mph), and weakest in summer, averaging 5 to 7 m/s (18 to 25 km/h, 11 to 16 mph). On the Pacific side they average 6 to 9 m/s (22 to 32 km/h, 13 to 20 mph) year round. Maximum wind speeds in the Atlantic region can approach 50 m/s (180 km/h, 110 mph) in winter (Przybylak 2003).
Read more about this topic: Climate Of The Arctic
Famous quotes containing the word wind:
“O love, my love! if I no more should see
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Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,—
How then should sound upon Life’s darkening slope
The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope,
The wind of Death’s imperishable wing?”
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)
“Those craning birds are choice for you, songs that jump back
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But do not travel down dumb wind like prodigals.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“The wind had seized the tree and ha, and ha,
It held the shivering, the shaken limbs,
Then bathed its body in the leaping lake.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)