Radar Reef Wind Stats

The figure illustrates how frequently and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical May. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with deep blue strongest. It is based on 3440 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Radar Reef, located 5 km away (3 miles). There are not enough 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 Radar Reef blows from the WSW. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Radar Reef. By contrast, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. Over an average May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 10% of the time (3 days each May) and blows offshore 41% of the time (13 days in an average May). In a typical May winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 2 days at Radar Reef

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