Malhadinha Wind Stats

The graph illustrates 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 implies the strength, with deep blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 3414 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Malhadinha, located 9 km away (6 miles). There are too few 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 dominant wind at Malhadinha blows from the WNW. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Malhadinha. 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. During a typical May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (pale blue) about 8% of the time (2 days each May) and blows offshore 14% of the time (4 days in an average May). Over an average May wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was expected for only a single days at Malhadinha

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