Many winds have names. Among the most constant winds are the Trade Winds. These winds blow towards the tropics and blow most of the year round. They were called the Trades in the times when much world trade was done by sailing ships. Ships always tried to avoid other areas in tropical oceans where winds hardly ever blow. These are called the Doldrums. A breeze is a light wind. Where the land and the sea meet, for example, you get land and sea breezes in summer. This is because the air is hotter over the land than the sea by day and cooler over land than sea at night. So the winds blow from the sea to land during the day and from land to sea at night.

The trade winds are winds that reliably blow east to west just north and south of the equator. The winds help ships travel west, and they can also steer storms such as hurricanes, too. Differences in air pressure over the ocean cause these storms to develop. As the dense, moist winds of the storm encounter the drier winds of the coast, the storm can increase in intensity. Strong trade winds are associated with a lack of precipitation, while weak trade winds carry rainfall far inland.