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About this plot:
A honey bee's flight speed is approximately 15 mph. It is lower, around 12 mph, when they are laden with nectar and pollen, and higher, up to 20 mph, when unladen. Wind speeds in the range 3.5 - 15 mph (1.6 - 6.7 m/sec) can reduce foraging efficiency, most notably if the bee is flying into a strong head wind, or it is gusty.
Interesting fact: The wings of a honey bee beat over 11,000 cycles per minute (3 wing beats per second) in order to generate lift.
The wind speed trace shown in the above plot (mean and gust) is a mean of the US North American atmospheric forecast model (NAM) and the nested CONUS model of NAM (higher resolution). The wind speed data from the models are always reported at 10 m (33 ft) above the ground. We use a logarithmic profile and the surface roughness of the ground to bring the wind speed down to 2 m above ground, where we assume the bees are flying. There is very little data showing at what altitude honey bees make foraging flights, but we assume it is closer to the ground where the winds are much less than at 10 m.
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