Weather & air
Wind direction & components
Convert meteorological wind direction into east/north components, or back.
A clear answer. Here’s how.
Meteorological direction describes where wind comes FROM, clockwise from true north. Eastward u=−speed×sin(direction); northward v=−speed×cos(direction). The inverse uses hypot(u,v) and atan2(−u,−v). Calm wind has undefined direction. Components are ideal vectors; no forecast or gust analysis is performed.
See a worked example
Worked example
A fixed demonstration, separate from the values you enter above.
- Direction
- Speed and wind-from direction → components
- Wind speed (m/s)
- 10
- Wind FROM true bearing (degrees)
- 270
Example result
- Eastward u (m/s)
- 10
- Northward v (m/s)
- 0
- Speed (m/s)
- 10
- Wind FROM true bearing
- 270°