Have you ever arrived at a holiday destination to find out that the 80% >4BFT only happens during the night or that the wind is gusty because it is offshore?
Here is a 3-step process to check out statistics for yourself so you are better informed about wat that matters most to you: how much time can I spend on the water with good, consistent wind from a safe direction?
Step 1: Visit http://www.windguru.cz/int/historie.php and pick the spot of interest and the time period of interest (look at last year and perhaps the same period, the years before that). Note down the wind strength and direction during the day (e.g. 10h 13h 16h). You can select the info on the windguru page and paste into a program such as MS Excel. If the spot is not listed in Windguru, try a nearby spot and perform step 1b.
Step 1b (if needed): Visit http://www.windfinder.com/windstats/windstatistic_map_world.htm and pick the nearby spot and the spot of interest to adjust the wind for the spot of interest (for instance if the wind strength at spot of interest is mostly 10% higher than the nearby spot listed on windguru, make the 10% adjustment).
Step 2: Look for your spot on http://maps.google.com/ viewing in satellite mode. Choose the acceptable wind directions for the spot (e.g. cross-shore = from NW and SE).
Step 3: From the list you created, note the times when the wind strength is good (e.g. for beginners between 11 knots and 25 knots) and the wind direction is good. Count the number of good times (e.g. 13 time points over a 1 week period) out of all time points (e.g. 3 time points per day over 1 week = 21). This gives you a much more practical wind statistic for the spot of interest (e.g. 13/21 = 62%).
We did this for Sao Vicente in Cape Verde (and some other popular holiday destination). Check out the results: http://www.kitesurfnow.eu/en/kitesurfing_cape_verde_islands/wind_report_weather.html .
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Great! This is indeed a good way to check for yourself. Many schools seem to present amazing wind statistics and then when you get there and find too little wind they say: “this year is different”. For the right wind direction: this was not entirely clear to me – could you explain?