APPENDIX E: WIND
The wind speed and wind direction regimes for Anchorage, Kenai, Homer, and
Kodiak, Alaska, are shown. These data were assembled and summarized specifically
for this project by the Air Force Combat Climatology Center as described in Section
6.1 (Source and Description of Climatological Data for Cook Inlet) from hourly obser-
vations of the mean wind speed for the period of record Jan. 1973Dec. 1997 (except
Jan. 1973Oct. 1997 for Homer). Gust winds are not included (when gust winds were
included, the mean wind speeds increased approximately 5% at Anchorage, Homer,
and Kenai and 11% at Kodiak). The graphs on the left side of the page show the cumu-
lative frequency distribution (line) with respect to wind speed and the distribution of
individual speed categories (bars), in 5-knot increments (04, 59, 1014 knots, etc).
The monthly summary statistics are shown in the upper right corner of the plots. The
graphs on the right are "wind roses" showing the frequency occurrence of winds from
each direction of the compass. The length of the line radiating from the center circle
corresponds to how frequently (in percent of all observations) the wind originates from
that particular direction. The values on the perimeter of the outer circle are the mean
speeds of the winds from the indicated direction.
Extreme maximum (knots)
Mean monthly maximum (knots)
Mean monthly (knots)
Cumulative wind
Mean monthly minimum (knots)
speed frequency
Total number of observations
In this case, 70% of
all recorded winds
were less than or
equal to 6.9 knots.
The length of each bar indicates the
percent frequency of the winds from
that compass direction. The circles
emanating outward equal zero, 20, and
40%, respectively. In this case, 32% of
all recorded winds were from the north.
January
100
7.9
54.0
6.2
6.2
12.8
80
6.0
1.7
60
18,186
5.3
4.6
20
40
40
20
5.7
7.2
8.0
12.11
0.65
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Wind Speed (knots)
Percent
Percent
frequency of
frequency of
variable winds
calm periods
Relative wind speed
frequency. In this case,
Mean speed (knots)
14% of all recorded
of all south winds
winds were 10-14 knots
in magnitude.
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