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Let's I am in a room with a window and I want to describe the direction of the wind with respect to the window, Can I use these these expressions

The direction of the wind is towards the window.(wind coming in the room through the window)

The direction of the wind is across the window (wind's direction being parallel to the window or in mathematical sense being at a 90 degree angle to the direction mentioned in expression 1).

Is this how a native english speaker would describe them?

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    I'd simplify - The wind blows in through/past the window. Only weather forecasters really need to be any more precise.
    – DoneWithThis.
    Commented Mar 27, 2015 at 17:36
  • @Dude Maybe you were thinking of "along the side of" (or simply "alongside"). I'm not sure if you were trying to understand the prepositions towards and across or you were aiming at precision writing. (I guess it's the first.) I believe that in technical writing, using perpendicular and parallel would be fine.
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Mar 28, 2015 at 8:32
  • As an English speaker, I don't think I would generally refer to wind this way. If it were blowing "along the outside wall", I would not refer to the window, but the wall itself.
    – Jeremy Nottingham
    Commented Apr 26, 2015 at 23:14

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I doubt anyone would use your example, since inside the room you would not be able to tell the wind direction without some other visual clue.

In your situation, I would say:

The wind is blowing through the window.

For wind blowing parallel to the window, you would only know that the wind is not blowing through the window. If the wind was blowing leaves, you might say;

The wind is blowing leaves past the window.

I can't envision using across in this context.

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  • What about rain? Say, rain is either parallel or perpendicular to the window. Can I say the direction of rain is towards the window/across the window?
    – Sahil
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 4:55
  • In normal circumstances rain cannot fall parallel to a window and strike it, nor can rain fall perpendicular (other than very high wind conditions like a tornado or hurricane). So I would just say "It is raining on/against the window". At a more horizontal direction, usually wind is involved. In that case, you could say "The wind is blowing the rain against the window."
    – user3169
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 17:12
  • By parallel what I meant was, say the window in my room is a sliding window which i can slide left to right and vice-versa. Say, rain in falling from left to right such that no water is coming inside the room even if the window is open as opposed to rain being aimed inside the room. This is what I intended to say when I used the word 'parallel', so what is the right word in this context?
    – Sahil
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 22:28
  • In the case where water is not actually hitting the window, there really isn't any direct relationship between them. A statement should be about what you see or what the rain is doing.
    – user3169
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 23:28

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