CleanBeta

The Windiest Place in the World

Map of World’s Ocean Wind Resources

(Top:Winter; Bottom:Summer)

Cape Farewell sits on the southern tip of Greenland near the intersection of the Labrador Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The collision of cold and warm ocean currents in this area amplify the strength of the Gulf Stream wind patterns to their maximum strength. Cape Farewell is the dark red area that surrounds the southern tip of Greenland on the map included below.

A more technical explanation of how the wind patterns near Cape Farewell function follows: The East Greenland current and the smaller east Greenland coastal current channel cold polar water into the lower latitudes of the North Atlantic. They flow south through the western Irminger Basin and around Cape Farewell into the Labrador Sea.  The surface circulation and transport of the Cape Farewell boundary current is the most intense wind speed anywhere in the world. The channel merges with Arctic waters of the EGC to the south of Cape Farewell, forming the west Greenland current.