Trade winds are very consistent winds blowing through the tropics (between 30° south and 30° north latitudes) at about 11 to 14 miles (18 to 22 kilometers) per hour, sometimes for days on end. In the Northern Hemisphere they blow toward the equator from the northeast, and south of the equator they blow in from the southeast. While the term “trade winds” leads most people to think they got their names from the days when large sailing ships depended on them for shipping routes, the word “trade” actually has a German origin and means “track” or “path.”