Zud Wind Stats

The figure illustrates 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 implies the strength, with the strongest winds shown by dark blue. It is based on 3348 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Zud, located 17 km away (11 miles). There are insufficient 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 most common wind at Zud blows from the NNW. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Zud. Converseley, dominant spokes illustrate 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 8% of the time (2 days each April) and blows offshore 33% of the time (6 days in an average April). Over an average April winds exceeding >40kph (25mph) are not expected, but 2 have winds on the range 30-40 (19-25) at Zud

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