Whatipu Wind Stats

This image describes how often 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 suggests 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 Whatipu, located 6 km away (4 miles). There are insufficient 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 Whatipu blows from the WSW. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Whatipu. On the other hand, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more deep 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 44% of the time (8 days in an average April). Over an average April wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was predicted for only a single days at Whatipu

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