The figure describes how often 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 the darkest shade of blue strongest. It is based on 1488 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to St Mikes, located 42 km away (26 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 St Mikes blows from the SSW. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at St Mikes. Converseley, 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. Over an average May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (pale blue) about 7% of the time (2 days each May) and blows offshore 18% of the time (4 days in an average May). In a typical May winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 2 days at St Mikes

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.