Nancy’Oblender, age 12, of Akron, Ohio for her question:
What winds blow in the horse latitudes?
The prevailing winds girdle the globe in wide scarves. At the waist of the world, two belts of trade winds blow towards the equator. There the northeast and the southeast trades meet and form a region of calm rising air. The trade wind belts end at latitudes 30 north and south of the equator. North and south of these lines, the westerlies blow in the opposite direction. At latitudes 30 north and south we have a tricky region between the westerlies and the easterly trades. These in .between areas are called the horse latitudes.
Here we have a region where the air is continually sinking. This warms the air and turns any misty cloud into invisible vapor gas. The skies are clear. The winds, when they blow are weak and often short¬lived. They are not part of the prevailing winds north and south of them and winds in the horse latitudes may blow from any direction.