Spatiotemporal Analysis of Wind Characteristics in Saudi Arabia Using GEFSv12 Reforecast Data for High-Wind-Sites Identification

Wind energy is a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy transition under Vision 2030, yet national-scale wind resource assessment remains constrained by sparse and unevenly distributed ground observations. This study evaluates the spatiotemporal variability of near-surface wind speed and direction across Saudi Arabia using Global Ensemble Forecast System Reforecast (GEFSv12 Reforecast) wind fields integrated with a GIS 10.8-based processing workflow. Wind vectors (U and V) were extracted from NetCDF files, converted to wind speed and meteorological wind direction, and analyzed at 183 grid-cell “virtual stations” covering the Kingdom for a five-year period (2018–2022) at four synoptic time steps (6-hourly). The resulting database comprises approximately 1,336,632 records. A practical verification using five airport stations matched to nearest virtual stations shows strong agreement between GEFS-derived and observed wind speeds (RMSE = 1.823; R2 = 0.879), supporting the dataset’s suitability for regional screening. Results reveal pronounced spatial heterogeneity and diurnal structure: northern, northeastern, central, and eastern Saudi Arabia consistently exhibit moderate-to-high winds (often >5.5 m/s) with persistent northwesterly–westerly flow, while western and southwestern coastal zones show stronger diurnal variability associated with thermal and sea-breeze influences. Peak, spatially coherent winds occur during the late-day synoptic period, forming a broad high-wind corridor across central and eastern regions. Given the ~1° (~110 km) resolution, findings are intended to be used for macro-scale wind-resource screening and the prioritization of high-wind zones for follow-up assessment.