Turtles Reef Wind Stats

The rose diagram describes how frequently and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical May. The biggest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with the strongest winds shown by deep blue. It is based on 3440 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Turtles Reef, located 41 km away (25 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 Turtles Reef 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 Turtles Reef. On the other hand, dominant spokes show favoured directions, and the more dark 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 (light blue) about 16% of the time (5 days each May) and blows offshore 60% of the time (19 days in an average May). In a typical May winds exceeding >40kph (25mph) are not expected, but 4 have winds on the range 30-40 (19-25) at Turtles Reef

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