Question

In the Northern Hemisphere, how do winds rotate in a low pressure area? What about in a high pressure area?

Answer 1

Hint: In the Northern Hemisphere, the winds rotate in a low pressure area in an anticlockwise swirl of winds which the air flows inwards, however, in high pressure area the air moves outward and rotates in clockwise swirl of winds due to coriolis effect.

Complete answer:
The figure below shows the low pressure area and high pressure area in the northern hemisphere of the earth. The red arrows show that in low pressure area air moves inward in anticlockwise direction and the blue arrows shows in high pressure area air moves outward in clockwise direction.

In the Northern Hemisphere, air is deflected towards the right due to Coriolis force, this phenomenon is called the Coriolis effect. Coriolis force is a fictional force which acts on the earth because of its rotation about its axis. Coriolis force is normally quite small, it becomes more relevant when considering motion of large objects over huge time intervals like the rotation of the earth.
Coriolis force is given by,
$F=-2m(\omega \times r)$ …(i)
Where, m is mass of earth, $\omega $ is angular velocity of earth and v is velocity of object (air).
In a low pressure area, in the low region where the air pressure is lower than the surroundings, air moves inwards (anticlockwise) as air is deflected towards the right due to Coriolis effect. This causes cyclones in the low pressure areas.
In a high pressure area, where the pressure is higher than the surroundings, air moves outwards (clockwise) as air is deflected towards the right due to Coriolis effect. This causes anticyclones in the high pressure areas.

Additional Information:
In the southern hemisphere, as air is deflected towards the left due to Coriolis effect. Thus, wind blows in anticlockwise direction in a high pressure area and wind blows in clockwise direction in a low pressure area.

Note:
Students should not be confused by the movement of air in high and low pressure areas in the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere. It is important to remember the concept of Coriolis effect and formula of Coriolis force given by equation (i) above.