Sopelana Wind Stats

This picture shows how frequently and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical May. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests the strength, with dark blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 3422 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Sopelana, located 12 km away (7 miles). There are insufficient 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 prevailing wind at Sopelana blows from the NW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Sopelana. Converseley, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. Over an average May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 22% of the time (7 days each May) and blows offshore 35% of the time (10 days in an average May). In a typical May wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was predicted for only a single days at Sopelana

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