Wind speeds have various names associated with their average strength, such as breeze, gale, storm, hurricane, and typhoon. Wind gusts exceed the minimum value over the observed time frame. Winds which sharply increase and last for a minute are termed squalls. While wind is often a standalone weather phenomenon, it can also occur as part of a storm system, most notably in a cyclone. Winds can shape landforms, via a variety of aeolian processes. Wind occurs on a range of scales, from local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting tens of minutes, to global winds resulting from the difference in absorption of solar energy between the climate zones on Earth. The two major driving factors of large scale atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, which causes the jet stream, and the rotation of the planet (Coriolis effect) which causes the circular motion of air around areas of high and low pressure.

In human civilization, wind has inspired mythology, changed the course of history, expanded the range of transport and warfare, and provided a power source for mechanical work, electricity, and recreation. Wind has been used to steer sailing ships across vast oceans. By air, hot air balloons use the wind to take short trips. Airships have historically been used for longer trips, but nowadays are used for a variety of monitoring efforts such as during public sporting events and drug trafficking efforts. Areas of wind shear caused by various weather phenomena can lead to dangerous situations for airplanes. Nature uses wind to help disperse seeds from various plants, in order to enable the survival of those plant species. Dust from large deserts can be moved large distances from their source region by the prevailing winds.

Cause

... winds are produced by differences of air temperature, and hence density, between two regions of the earth.

Forces which drive wind or affect it are the pressure gradient force, the coriolis force, buoyancy forces, and friction forces. When a difference in density exists between two adjacent air masses, the air tends to flow from the regions of higher to lower pressure. On a rotating planet, flows will be acted upon by the Coriolis force, in regions sufficiently far from the equator and sufficiently high above the surface. Surface friction with land causes winds to blow more inward into low pressure areas.

The two major driving factors of small room or large scale global winds

Winds defined by an equilibrium of physical forces are used in the decomposition and analysis of wind profiles. They are useful for simplifying the atmospheric equations of motion and for making qualitative arguments about the horizontal and vertical distribution of moving you winds. Geostrophic wind is the wind component that is a result of the balance between Coriolis force and pressure gradient force. It flows parallel to isobars and approximates the flow above the atmospheric boundary layer in the midlatitudes if frictional effects are low. The Thermal wind is not actually a wind but a wind difference between two levels; only exists in an atmosphere with horizontal temperature gradients, i.e. baroclinicity. Ageostrophic wind is the difference between actual and geostrophic wind, or the wind component which is responsible for air "filling up" cyclones over time. The Gradient wind is similar to the geostrophic wind but also includes centrifugal force (or centripetal acceleration).