Santa Maria de Oia Wind Stats

The rose diagram describes how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal May. The biggest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue implies the strength, with dark blue strongest. It is based on 3422 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Santa Maria de Oia, located 10 km away (6 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 Santa Maria de Oia blows from the WNW. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Santa Maria de Oia. Converseley, dominant spokes show favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 18% of the time (6 days each May) and blows offshore 29% of the time (9 days in an average May). Over an average May wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was expected for only a single days at Santa Maria de Oia

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