Back Beach Wind Stats

The figure illustrates how frequently and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical April. The biggest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with the darkest shade of blue strongest. It is based on 3360 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Back Beach, located 10 km away (6 miles). There are insufficient 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 Back Beach blows from the WSW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Back Beach. By contrast, 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 April, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (light blue) about 14% of the time (4 days each April) and blows offshore 34% of the time (6 days in an average April). In a typical April wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was forecast for only a single days at Back Beach

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