Lake · Michigan · United States
Cat Head Bay
Best for kiting in October, with 59 % kite days. Also windy, but cold (water and air under 12 °C or short days): November to April.
A kite day has at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 knots (gusts up to 45) between 10:00 and 19:00, in daylight. Percentages are the share of such days in each month, counted over 9 years.
- Prime 60 % and more
- Good 40 to 59 %
- Possible 20 to 39 %
- Off under 20 %
- No data hatched
- Ringed: this month
Prime also needs a good month in at least 7 of the 9 years, so one freak year cannot make a month Prime. A month with 60 %+ but fewer good years shows as Good.
Confidence lowLake or river spot: global weather models underestimate local thermal winds here.
Month by month
- Kite days
- 59 % Goodabout 18 of 31 days
- Too light, kiteable, too strong
- Too light 41 %
- Kiteable 59 %
- Too strong 0 %
- Good years
- 7 of 9 years reached 50 % kite days
- Best hours
- 10:00 to 18:00when the wind is most often 12 to 35 knots
- Daylight
- 11.0 h
- Air
- 12 °Cdaily maximum, 10 °C during kite hours
- Rain
- 15 of 31with 1 mm or more
- In one sentence
In October, Cat Head Bay averaged 18 kite days out of 31 (59 %).
| Kite days% of days | 63 | 69 | 60 | 52 | 38 | 28 | 24 | 32 | 38 | 59 | 73 | 69 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verdictshare plus good years | cold | cold | cold | cold | cold | Possible | Possible | Possible | Possible | Good | cold | cold |
| Good yearsof 9, reached 50 % | 7 of 9 | 9 of 9 | 8 of 9 | 6 of 9 | 1 of 9 | 0 of 9 | 0 of 9 | 0 of 9 | 3 of 9 | 7 of 9 | 9 of 9 | 9 of 9 |
| Best hourshour of day, most often 12 to 35 kn | 10 to 16 | 10 to 17 | 10 to 19 | 10 to 19 | 10 to 19 | 13 to 19 | 10 to 18 | 10 to 17 | 10 to 12 | 10 to 18 | 10 to 16 | 10 to 16 |
| Daylighth | 9.2 | 10.4 | 11.9 | 13.5 | 14.8 | 15.6 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.6 | 11.0 | 9.6 | 8.8 |
| Air°C, daily maximum | -2 | -2 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 18 | 12 | 6 | 1 |
| Rain days1 mm or more | 16 of 31 | 12 of 28 | 12 of 31 | 12 of 30 | 9 of 31 | 11 of 30 | 9 of 31 | 9 of 31 | 9 of 30 | 15 of 31 | 15 of 30 | 16 of 31 |
- In January, Cat Head Bay averaged 20 kite days out of 31 (63 %).
- In February, Cat Head Bay averaged 19 kite days out of 28 (69 %).
- In March, Cat Head Bay averaged 19 kite days out of 31 (60 %).
- In April, Cat Head Bay averaged 15 kite days out of 30 (52 %).
- In May, Cat Head Bay averaged 12 kite days out of 31 (38 %).
- In June, Cat Head Bay averaged 8 kite days out of 30 (28 %).
- In July, Cat Head Bay averaged 8 kite days out of 31 (24 %).
- In August, Cat Head Bay averaged 10 kite days out of 31 (32 %).
- In September, Cat Head Bay averaged 11 kite days out of 30 (38 %).
- In October, Cat Head Bay averaged 18 kite days out of 31 (59 %).
- In November, Cat Head Bay averaged 22 kite days out of 30 (73 %).
- In December, Cat Head Bay averaged 21 kite days out of 31 (69 %).
Good year: at least half the days of that month were kite days. Trip odds are hidden here: at low confidence the model does not see this spot's wind well enough to count on. Best hours: the hours from 10:00 on when the wind most often reaches 12 to 35 knots. Rain day: 1 mm or more of rain.
Source: ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly model wind, 2017 to 2025; water temperature 2023 to 2025. How we count kite days and trip odds
Trip odds at Cat Head Bay
Trip odds are hidden here: at low confidence the model does not see this spot's wind well enough to count on.
How the wind behaves
In November, the windiest month
- Too light 26 %
- Kiteable 73 %
- Too strong 1 %
Too light on 26 %, kiteable on 73 %, too strong on 1 % of days.
Best hours: 10:00 to 16:00, when the wind is most often 12 to 35 knots.
Share of kite days by wind direction, 16 sectors
Wind mostly from WSW (248°), fairly steady direction.
Kitesurfing at Cat Head Bay: quick answers
When is the best time to kitesurf at Cat Head Bay?
The best month is October: from 2017 to 2025, 59 % of its days were kite days.
Is Cat Head Bay windy in October?
Yes, often. 59 % of days in October were kite days from 2017 to 2025, about 18 days in a typical October.
How many kite days does Cat Head Bay get in a year?
About 184 days a year were kite days from 2017 to 2025, out of 365. A kite day has at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 kn model wind between 10:00 and 19:00 in daylight, with gusts up to 45 kn.
Live forecast
The numbers above are long term averages. The forecast shows the next days.
Live forecast from Windy
The forecast map for Cat Head Bay comes from windy.com (Windyty SE, Prague, Czech Republic) and opens right here on this page. Once you load it, your browser contacts Windy, which receives your IP address and may set its own cookies. Nothing is loaded before you click.
Spot facts
- Region
- Michigan
- Country
- United States
- Water body
- Lake, from Natural Earth map data
- Nearest airport
- Cherry Capital Airport (TVC), 50 km straight line. Flights are not sold here; this is for planning only.
- Time zone
- UTC-04:00 in October
- Coordinates
- 45.1865, -85.5744
- Model
- ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly
Conditions, checked against kite guides
Water state, flat areas, waves and whether schools teach here, from kite sources, not from satellite images.
Not yet checked against kite guides. We research spot conditions one by one and show only what a kite source says.
Plan your trip
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kiteCOMPASS · method k3h-10to19-v1 · 2017 to 2025
Model wind: ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly, 2017 to 2025. Water temperature: 2023 to 2025. Kite day: at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 kn model wind between 10:00 and 19:00 in daylight, with gusts up to 45 kn. Confidence: low.
Cite this
In October, 59 % of days at Cat Head Bay met the kiteCOMPASS kite day rule: at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 kn model wind between 10:00 and 19:00 in daylight, with gusts up to 45 kn (ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly, 2017 to 2025). https://kitecompass.app/spot/cat-head-bay
Numbers on this page are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: name kiteCOMPASS and link to this page.