The graph illustrates how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal northern hemisphere spring. The longest 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 4858 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Talisker Bay, located 32 km away (20 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 Talisker Bay blows from the SSW. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Talisker Bay. Converseley, dominant spokes represent favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical northern hemisphere spring, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 3% of the time (3 days each northern hemisphere spring) and blows offshore just 6% of the time (0 days in an average northern hemisphere spring). Over an average northern hemisphere spring winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 11 days at Talisker Bay

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.