Radar Reef Wind Stats

This image illustrates how frequently and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical September. The biggest 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 2006, 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. No doubt 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 graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Radar Reef. Converseley, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more the darkest shade of blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. Over an average September, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (pale blue) about 7% of the time (2 days each September) and blows offshore 23% of the time (7 days in an average September). In a typical September winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 3 days at Radar Reef

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