Gansbaai Wind Stats

This picture illustrates how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal August. The biggest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue implies the strength, with the strongest winds shown by dark blue. It is based on 3454 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Gansbaai, located 32 km away (20 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 dominant wind at Gansbaai blows from the SW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Gansbaai. By contrast, dominant spokes show favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical August, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (light blue) about 11% of the time (3 days each August) and blows offshore 40% of the time (12 days in an average August). Over an average August winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 4 days at Gansbaai

read more