Tauranga Bay Wind Stats

This picture shows how often 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 suggests the strength, with the darkest shade of 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 Tauranga Bay, located 16 km away (10 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 prevailing wind at Tauranga Bay blows from the ENE. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Tauranga Bay. Converseley, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more dark 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 (light blue) about 9% of the time (3 days each April) and blows offshore 36% of the time (3 days in an average April). Over an average April wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was predicted for only a single days at Tauranga Bay

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