This picture describes how frequently and how strongly the wind
blows from different directions over a normal northern
hemisphere spring. The longest 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 the darkest
shade of blue. It is based on 4847 NWW3 forecasts of wind since
since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to
Pensacola Beach, located 51 km away (32 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 Pensacola Beach blows from the
SSE. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it
means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Pensacola
Beach. On the other hand, dominant spokes represent favoured
directions, and the more the darkest shade of blue, the stronger
the wind. Spokes point in th