Waihua Wind Stats

The figure describes 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 indicates the strength, with the strongest winds shown by the darkest shade of blue. It is based on 3440 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Waihua, located 49 km away (30 miles). There are insufficient 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 prevailing wind at Waihua blows from the S. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Waihua. By contrast, 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 (the lightest shade of blue) about 6% of the time (2 days each May) and blows offshore 25% of the time (7 days in an average May). In a typical May winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 3 days at Waihua

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