Balapitiya Wind Stats

This picture describes how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical May. The biggest 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 3440 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Balapitiya, located 54 km away (34 miles). There are too few 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 prevailing wind at Balapitiya blows from the SW. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Balapitiya. On the other hand, 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. Over an average May, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (light blue) about 4% of the time (1 days each May) and blows offshore just 5% of the time (2 days in an average May). In a typical May wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was predicted for only a single days at Balapitiya

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