The Strait Wind Stats

The figure describes how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal April. The largest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with the strongest winds shown by deep blue. It is based on 3360 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to The Strait, located 44 km away (27 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 prevailing wind at The Strait blows from the W. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at The Strait. Converseley, dominant spokes represent 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 (the lightest shade of blue) about 17% of the time (5 days each April) and blows offshore 39% of the time (7 days in an average April). Over an average April wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was forecast for only a single days at The Strait

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