Whiritoa Wind Stats

The rose diagram shows how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal April. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests the strength, with dark blue strongest. It is based on 3360 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Whiritoa, 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 most common wind at Whiritoa blows from the ENE. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Whiritoa. On the other hand, dominant spokes represent 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 April, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (light blue) about 13% of the time (4 days each April) and blows offshore 45% of the time (3 days in an average April). Over an average April wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was predicted for only a single days at Whiritoa

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