Sailing through wind data
Climate analysis needs to be an integral part of every early architecture and urban design process. Wind is one of the factors we as designers need to include to ensure comfortable, safe spaces. Some of the ways to achieve this is through analysis, such as pedestrian wind comfort or outdoor thermal comfort, both for early and late design phases.
When it comes to wind data, there are many sources we can use. It is of good practice to check on multiple sources to detect any particularities or local wind effects.
A couple of indicators to see which data sources is best for each case are necessary. One of them is the number of years of data available. Higher range of years makes up for more accurate models.
There are also different types of data, such as measured on site, but also modelled through statistics. These forecast models and simulations also include spatial resolution, most of the time measured in km.
According to these indicators, 4 recommended sources are:
1. Meteoblue
https://www.meteoblue.com
Years of data: +30 years
Spatial resolution: 30km
This is a great source due to the amount of data available and the resources we get, such as a reliable wind rose and bar graphics for wind frequency all through the month and year. This source includes a differentiation between modelled and observed data. It's also possible to purchase the access to the climate historic data for the +30 years period.
In LINK IO, we generate wind roses for a specific location just with a Google Maps point. Through SimScale, one of our wind analysis software, we fetch data from Meteoblue directly into a PNG, SVG and a CSV for you to use. Here, we can select how many wind directions (from 1 to 16), following the wind engineering standard EN 1991-1-4. Also, keeping a Wind Rose library of the most common places where LINK works in is also part of our efforts.
2. Globalwindatlas
https://globalwindatlas.info
Years of data: 10 years.
Simulation period: 2008-2017
Spatial resolution: 3km, 250m grid spacing
This is a great tool to analyze any place in the world with a great depth of insights regarding wind data. The outcomes are divided in area and temporal data, along with energy yield. Some useful resources it provides are the wind frequency, wind speed and wind power rose. On temporal data, we can observe the wind speed variability in years, monthly, and hourly.
OBS: Pay attention to the lower right selection of height above the ground when using this tool.
3. DMI Numerical Weather Prediction from the Danish Meteorological Agency
https://nwp.dmi.govcloud.dk/aviation/windmap2007-2016.html
Years of data: 2007-2016
This site fetches information from weather stations placed in diverse places, such as cities and meteorological institutes, as well mountain tops, lighthouses, and especially airports.
It provides wind roses of frequency by direction and average wind speed by direction. It's useful to see the differences between seasons throughout the year in a dynamic way. It works pretty well when we know there is an specific weather station near our place of interest.
4. Windy.app Desktop and Mobile App
https://windy.app
Years of data: 2012-2020
Spatial resolution: 7-14km, 4km in certain areas
This is a good tool to have while being on site! A desktop version is also available on windy.app. It provides forecast, a wind rose and frequency graphs, with the chance of going back in time until 2012 to see the wind frequency history charts. A PRO version allows access to historic data and weather forecast prior up to 10 days.
We'll definitely keep updating our recommended sources for wind data. Many thanks to Mathias Sønderskov from LINK Copenhagen and Adrian Lombardo from LINK Landskap in Oslo for contributing with sources for this article!