The most dangerous winds on the Broads come from the North and the West and any combo of those. The wind catches the water and creates big waves. By the time these waves get to the middle of the lake... they are huge and dangerous. The same wind speed coming from East and South and variants of those create a lot of bump on the water, but nowhere near the height of the waves from N and W. The one to watch out for is WSW. Sometimes this wind direction is of the edge of W that the big waves do form. Other times WSW is toward the S and much better conditions will occur.
We who live on the Broads constantly monitor the weather for this reason. It is the main reason for putting up Snake Eyes in 2004... so I could see what it was like out there before venturing out to Rattlesnake. If you go to
www.rattlesnakecam.com/watch.htm you can see the cams from around the lake... keep in mind that the images look more calm than it really is.
Then we have the three day blow. This happens after a nasty cold front and the NW picks up and does not let up for three days. In the summer this does not happen as frequently as in the late fall.
We get plenty of jetskiing in on the broads so do not be put off by the warnings... there are lots of lovely days and much less wind.
IG