Van Riebeek Wind Stats

The rose diagram shows how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal May. The largest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests 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 Van Riebeek, located 47 km away (29 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 Van Riebeek blows from the SW. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Van Riebeek. By contrast, dominant spokes represent favoured directions, and the more dark blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (light blue) about 15% of the time (5 days each May) and blows offshore 28% of the time (9 days in an average May). Over an average May winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 2 days at Van Riebeek

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