Cape Mendocino Wind Stats

The rose diagram illustrates how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical May. The biggest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue implies the strength, with the strongest winds shown by deep blue. It is based on 3440 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Cape Mendocino, located 13 km away (8 miles). There are not enough recording stations world wide to use actual wind data. Without question some coastal places have very localized wind effects that would not be predicted by NWW3. According to the model, the prevailing wind at Cape Mendocino blows from the SW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Cape Mendocino. On the other hand, dominant spokes represent favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. Over an average May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 6% of the time (2 days each May) and blows offshore 6% of the time (2 days in an average May). During a typical May winds exceeding >40kph (25mph) are not expected, but 1 have winds on the range 30-40 (19-25) at Cape Mendocino

read more