This picture shows how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal February. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests the strength, with the darkest shade of blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 1584 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to La Garde Guerin, located 41 km away (25 miles). There are not enough recording stations world wide to use actual wind data. No doubt some coastal places have very localized wind effects that would not be predicted by NWW3.

According to the model, the most common wind at La Garde Guerin blows from the WNW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at La Garde Guerin. On the other hand, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more the darkest shade of blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical February, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 8% of the time (2 days each February) and blows offshore 23% of the time (4 days in an average February). Over an average February winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 3 days at La Garde Guerin

IMPORTANT: Beta version feature! Swell heights are open water values from NWW3. There is no attempt to model near-shore effects. Coastal wave heights will generally be less, especially if the break does not have unobstructed exposure to the open ocean.