Waipaoa River Wind Stats

This image shows how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal May. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue implies the strength, with the darkest shade of blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 3440 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Waipaoa River, located 32 km away (20 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 Waipaoa River blows from the SSE. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Waipaoa River. By contrast, 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 May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 9% of the time (3 days each May) and blows offshore 45% of the time (14 days in an average May). Over an average May winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 3 days at Waipaoa River

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