Akahanga Wind Stats

This picture shows how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal April. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with deep blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 3360 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Akahanga, located 23 km away (14 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 Akahanga 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 Akahanga. 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. During a typical April, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 9% of the time (3 days each April) and blows offshore 32% of the time (10 days in an average April). Over an average April winds exceeding >40kph (25mph) are not expected, but 4 have winds on the range 30-40 (19-25) at Akahanga

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