This image illustrates how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal December. The largest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue implies the strength, with dark blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 1735 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Port O'Conner, located 36 km away (22 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 most common wind at Port O'Conner blows from the SE. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Port O'Conner. By contrast, dominant spokes show 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 December, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (light blue) about 5% of the time (2 days each December) and blows offshore 19% of the time (5 days in an average December). Over an average December winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 2 days at Port O'Conner

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.