Whangamata Estuary Wind Stats

The rose diagram describes how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal September. The largest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests the strength, with the strongest winds shown by deep blue. It is based on 3359 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Whangamata Estuary, located 28 km away (17 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 most common wind at Whangamata Estuary blows from the ENE. If the rose plot shows a nearly round shape, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Whangamata Estuary. On the other hand, dominant spokes represent favoured directions, and the more dark blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical September, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 7% of the time (2 days each September) and blows offshore 37% of the time (3 days in an average September). Over an average September winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 2 days at Whangamata Estuary

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