Wind Rose Plots

Wind Rose Plots show the percentage of time wind blows from or to a certain direction and how fast the wind is blowing. I looked at wind rose plots from San Diego, California in March 1991.

The weather station is generally at the San Diego Airport; however, I believe the weather station is actually a little past the airport as seen in the Google Earth image below. The airport is at the red marker and I believe the weather station is at the yellow push pin.

I looked at the wind rose plot for March 11, 1991. One way to read a wind rose plot is to look at the direction the wind is blowing from. The following wind rose plots shows that perspective. The different colors represent the wind speed and the length of the slices represents the amount of times the wind came from that direction within the time period.

Station #23811 San Diego/Lindbergh Field March 11, 1991

Here is the same wind rose plot on Google Earth. It is an interesting perspective. It helps visualize where the wind is coming from in relation to the actual land.

Another way to present a wind rose plot is by showing where the wind is blowing to. The following wind rose plot shows that perspective for the same day.

Station #23811 San Diego/Lindbergh Field March 11, 1991

The following wind rose plot shows the monthly average for March 1991. This shows where the wind is blowing towards.

Station #23811 San Diego/Lindbergh Field March 1991 

The following wind rose plot shows the annual average for 1991. Again, it shows the direction the wind is blowing towards.

Station #23811 San Diego/Lindbergh 1991 

I got the data from the EPA. Click here to see archived data. 

I got the Wind Rose Plot software from Lakes Environmental. You can download it here. 

I also used Google Earth for the image of the San Diego weather station. You can download it here.