Elliot Bay Wind Stats

The figure illustrates how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical June. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue implies the strength, with dark blue strongest. It is based on 2786 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Elliot Bay, located 31 km away (19 miles). There are not enough 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 Elliot Bay blows from the ENE. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Elliot Bay. On the other hand, dominant spokes show favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. Over an average June, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (pale blue) about 6% of the time (2 days each June) and blows offshore 32% of the time (8 days in an average June). During a typical June winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 2 days at Elliot Bay

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