Santa Maria Wind Stats

The rose diagram shows 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 indicates the strength, with deep blue strongest. It is based on 3422 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Santa Maria, located 26 km away (16 miles). There are insufficient 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 Santa Maria blows from the SSW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Santa Maria. Converseley, dominant spokes represent favoured directions, and the more dark 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 (pale blue) about 2% of the time (1 days each May) and blows offshore just 3% of the time (1 days in an average May). During a typical May winds exceeding >40kph (25mph) are not expected, but 0 have winds on the range 30-40 (19-25) at Santa Maria

read more