Makalawena Wind Stats

The figure illustrates how frequently and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal April. The largest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests 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 Makalawena, located 23 km away (14 miles). There are too few 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 dominant wind at Makalawena blows from the WNW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Makalawena. Converseley, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more dark blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical April, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (pale blue) about 6% of the time (2 days each April) and blows offshore 9% of the time (1 days in an average April). Over an average April winds exceeding >40kph (25mph) are not expected, but 0 have winds on the range 30-40 (19-25) at Makalawena

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