TCs Wind Stats

The figure describes how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal December. The biggest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests the strength, with deep blue strongest. It is based on 3448 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to TCs, located 29 km away (18 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 dominant wind at TCs blows from the WSW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at TCs. By contrast, dominant spokes show favoured directions, and the more the darkest shade of blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical December, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (pale blue) about 27% of the time (8 days each December) and blows offshore 50% of the time (14 days in an average December). Over an average December wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was predicted for only a single days at TCs

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