> The same thing seems to apply to whirlpools.  In a "popular science
> book" I found an illustration of a northern hemisphere whirlpool
> (rotating anti-clockwise, I think) and a southern hemisphere (rotating
> clockwise), but in any case rotating in the opposite direction).
> But is this really true?

Yup, cyclonic storms and wind patterns rotate as stated.  Your basic
winds blow from the east due to the earth's rotation beneath the
atmosphere and from the poles toward the equator due to the dropping
down of chilled air.  These combine in complex ways (coriolis effects,
etc) to produce some of the more fundamental wind patterns.

Mark Kinsler
Lancaster, Ohio USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~mkinsler1