The graph illustrates how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal March. The longest 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 1724 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Point Lonsdale, located 25 km away (16 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 dominant wind at Point Lonsdale blows from the SW. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Point Lonsdale. 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 March, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (light blue) about 11% of the time (3 days each March) and blows offshore 30% of the time (9 days in an average March). Over an average March winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 2 days at Point Lonsdale

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.