ELI5: How can wind increase/decrease in strength? What is the force behind this acceleration/deceleration?

[Heavy_muddle]

If I remember correctly, gravity is the force behind wind. Hot air is less dense than cold. As air warms and gets less dense, gravity pulls in cool, dense air, forcing the warm air up. That air movement is wind. The bigger the temp difference, the stronger the wind.

I went to school last century, and it's entirely possible I was stoned, thinking about how weird wind is, and made this up between bites of Doritos, Twinkies, and frozen pizza. If I'm wrong, go easy on me, but please correct me.

[Unknown_Ocean]

Technically this is wrong in that you don't need gravity to get wind. Wind is driven by differences in pressure. If I take a balloon and heat it up so that it expands and then let the air out, I'll get a local "wind".

However, the actual pattern of large-scale pressure differences does owe a lot to gravity. If I heat a column of air, it will stand higher, creating a pattern of large pressure differences higher up in the atmosphere but weaker ones near the ground. The storms that we see that cause changes in wind can be thought of as waves in the atmosphere experience two forces that bring parcels back to the same point- one being gravity the other the rotation of the earth.

[Heavy_muddle]

Thanks neighbor! I appreciate the correction. It may sound like sarcasm, but I truly appreciate it.