Pontinha Wind Stats

This chart illustrates how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical August. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with dark blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 3590 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Pontinha, located 8 km away (5 miles). There are not enough recording stations world wide to use actual wind data. Invevitably some coastal places have very localized wind effects that would not be predicted by NWW3. According to the model, the most common wind at Pontinha blows from the NW. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Pontinha. 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. Over an average August, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (light blue) about 6% of the time (2 days each August) and blows offshore 7% of the time (2 days in an average August). In a typical August wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was forecast for only a single days at Pontinha

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