Question

Winds in the Northern Hemisphere shift in a clockwise direction. What cause this change in direction?

Answer 1

Answer:

The earth rotates on its axis from west to east. This rotation causes both the wind and ocean currents to move from east to west. Thus, the wind movement and ocean currents in the northern hemisphere goes clockwise and counter clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

Because Earth rotates on its axis from west towards the east, air near the surface from the tropics is moved toward a westerly direction (toward the right as it is often called) in the northern hemisphere. Notice the difference between the lines drawn when the globe did not move (shown with arrow heads) and the lines which were drawn as Earth rotated.