Wind speed too high in northern Lesser Antilles

[nettlebay]

Hello everybody. I live in the West Indies, in St Martin island (18N, 63W). Generally, wind speed by Windy is 5 to 12 km / h higher than the reality. At this time (12th of July at midday), Windy indicates 29 km / h while Princess Juliana Airport indicates 23 km / h (link below). In Nettle Bay (or Baie Nettlé, 2.5 kilometers from the airport) where I live, wind is felt as light to moderate (but not 29 km/h). Nevertheless, Windy is an excellent application that I consult every day.
Check official wind speed at http://w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/metric/TNCM.html

[idefix37]

@nettlebay
You are on the leeward coast of St Martin, just like the airport on which the wind is recorded. The ECMWF model shows almost no difference to the wind on the windward side, on the island and on the leeward side. I think the reason is related to the orographic model used. On St Martin the relief (max alt 400m) is not high enough for the weather model to take it into account. While on Guadeloupe (max alt 1400m), Dominic and Martinique all with higher mountains, we clearly see the effect of the relief which causes a weakening of the wind on the leeward coast.
(Wind speeds are expressed in knots)

PS : J’espère que vous ne subirez pas cette année les furies cycloniques que vous avez connues l’an dernier.