Aramoana Spit Wind Stats

The figure describes how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical April. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with the strongest winds shown by the darkest shade of blue. It is based on 3360 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Aramoana Spit, located 29 km away (18 miles). There are insufficient recording stations world wide to use actual wind data. Invevitably some coastal places have very localized wind effects that would not be predicted by NWW3. According to the model, the prevailing wind at Aramoana Spit blows from the ENE. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Aramoana Spit. Converseley, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. Over an average April, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 2% of the time (1 days each April) and blows offshore just 8% of the time (2 days in an average April). In a typical April wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was forecast for only a single days at Aramoana Spit

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