At the smallest scale, local winds like land and sea breezes are generated by differences in surface heating over only a few miles. Across areas perhaps several hundred miles in diameter, wind is sometimes seen to blow from high pressure to low pressure regions. Effectively, air is being pushed from one place to another. The differences in pressure are generated by temperatures contrasts caused by the unequal distribution of heat from the Sun. The wind however, does not blow in a straight line from high to low pressure. In fact it follows a much longer path spiraling out from a high pressure centre and spiraling in towards a low pressure centre. This is caused by the Coriolis force which results from the rotation of the Earth. Such wind is sometimes known as cyclonic wind.