Tropical Atlantic: "Nice" Wind Direction

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Tropical Storm Igor

Thursday, September 9, 2010 7:03 GMT

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Due to an error on September 7th and 8th in part of the NHC's ATCF system, our new model system in alpha testing needs to be recoded to handle errors better that occur on the NHC's end. (It will likely be very unstable for at least several days.) Our current model system is operating normally. - 3:45PM EDT on 9/8

"Nice" Wind Direction

For wind direction, the following page lets you know what was used to denote "nice" wind direction from the direction in degrees. The "between" terminology is not based on any scientific information. There are sixteen "nice" direction names. That corresponds to 22.5° for each section of a circle (360°). The actual division between two "nice" wind directions falls to decimal places. Because recon data rounds to the nearest whole number, I do not know the tenths digit. The actual split between N and NNE occurs mathematically at 11.25°. In real world meteorological use, I do not know what the official cut off is for reporting stations around the country. If you know please let me know. For the products on this site, I use what is below.

The reason I had to add a "between" description is because I do not know if the wind direction would correspond more closely to one direction or the other. The difference is so very small, to the extent that it is beyond being significant based on the data we are using. For example, if 11° is the wind direction reported by recon, we are unable to determine if this is closer to N or NNE. The mathematical division is 11.25. Since recon only reports to the nearest whole number, I do not know if the wind direction was below 11.25 or above it. This really shouldn't be focused on too much, because a couple degrees worth of difference isn't that big of a deal. However, if I were to report 11° as N and not explain that the value was so close between the two, it would not give a complete picture. Though, once again, the differences are so small to really mention. I may come up with an alternative solution in future versions of the recon decoders on this site.

349°-10°: the N
11°: between N and NNE
12°-32°: the NNE
33°: between the NNE and NE
34°-55°: the NE
56°: between the NE and ENE
57°-77°: the ENE
78°: between the ENE and E
79°-100°: the E
101°: between the E and ESE
102°-122°: the ESE
123°: between the ESE and SE
124°-145°: the SE
146°: between the SE and SSE
147°-167°: the SSE
168°: between the SSE and S
169°-190°: the S
191°: between the S and SSW
192°-212°: the SSW
213°: between the SSW and SW
214°-235°: the SW
236°: between the SW and WSW
237°-257°: the WSW
258°: between the WSW and W
259°-280°: the W
281°: between the W and WNW
282°-302°: the WNW
303°: between the WNW and NW
304°-325°: the NW
326°: between the NW and NNW
327°-347°: the NNW
348°: between the NNW and N