Flexi Says: In the United States, the general direction of air movement is from west to east and these winds are called as the Westerlies. Let’s look at the global wind belts in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Hadley cell air should move north to south, but it is deflected to the right by Coriolis. So the air blows from northeast to the southwest. This belt is the trade winds, so called because at the time of sailing ships they were good for trade.In the Ferrel cell air should move south to north, but the winds actually blow from the southwest. This belt is the westerly winds or westerlies.
In the Polar cell, the winds travel from the northeast and are called the polar easterlies.
The wind belts are named for the directions from which the winds come. The westerly winds, for example, blow from west to east.
