Fanad Head Reef Wind Stats

The figure describes how commonly and how strongly the wind blows from different directions through a typical July. The biggest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with dark blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 3014 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Fanad Head Reef, located 33 km away (21 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 prevailing wind at Fanad Head Reef blows from the NW. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Fanad Head Reef. On the other hand, dominant spokes show favoured directions, and the more dark blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. Over an average July, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 4% of the time (1 days each July) and blows offshore just 8% of the time (2 days in an average July). In a typical July wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was forecast for only a single days at Fanad Head Reef

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