NNE stands for north-northeast, a compass direction halfway between north and northeast. On the standard compass rose, NNE corresponds to a bearing of 22.5 degrees, measured clockwise from true north. When a weather report says the wind is “from the NNE,” it means the air is blowing from that direction toward you, which is a detail that trips up more people than you might expect.
How the 16-Point Compass Rose Works
The compass rose used in everyday weather reports divides the full 360-degree circle into 16 named directions. The four cardinal points come first: north (0° or 360°), east (90°), south (180°), and west (270°). Between each pair of cardinal points sits an intercardinal direction: northeast (45°), southeast (135°), southwest (225°), and northwest (315°). Between each cardinal and intercardinal direction, you get eight more points, and NNE is one of them. It sits between north (0°) and northeast (45°), splitting the difference at 22.5°.
The full set of 16 points, starting from north and moving clockwise, runs: N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, ESE, SE, SSE, S, SSW, SW, WSW, W, WNW, NW, NNW. Each covers a 22.5-degree arc of the horizon. A reported wind direction of NNE technically means the wind is coming from anywhere within the arc centered on 22.5°, which spans roughly from 11.25° to 33.75°. In practice, weather services round observed wind directions to the nearest compass point, so a wind measured at 30° and one measured at 15° would both be called NNE.
You will sometimes see a 32-point compass rose used in traditional maritime navigation, which adds directions like “north by east” and “northeast by north.” Modern meteorology has largely settled on the 16-point system for public forecasts because it gives enough precision without being cumbersome. Professional observations, such as those recorded by automated weather stations, report wind in exact degrees rather than compass abbreviations.
Why Wind Direction Describes Where It Comes From, Not Where It Goes
This is the single most common source of confusion with wind direction labels. An NNE wind does not blow toward the north-northeast. It blows from the north-northeast, meaning the air is traveling roughly toward the south-southwest. Meteorologists named winds this way centuries ago, and the convention stuck. When a sailor felt cold air hitting them from a northerly quadrant, they called it a north wind. The label describes the origin, not the destination.
Ocean currents, by contrast, follow the opposite convention. A “northward current” flows toward the north. So the same body of moving fluid would be described in opposite directional terms depending on whether it is air or water. If you are reading a weather forecast and wondering where the air is heading, flip the compass direction by 180 degrees. NNE wind pushes air toward SSW.
This from-versus-to distinction matters whenever you are trying to figure out which side of your house will be sheltered, where to position a tent, or why smoke from a fire is drifting in a particular direction. An NNE wind will push smoke, pollen, and anything else airborne toward the SSW.
How NNE Winds Are Reported in Forecasts and Observations
Public weather forecasts from national services typically use the 16-point compass abbreviation. You will see phrases like “winds from the NNE at 10 to 15 mph” or “NNE winds 15 to 20 km/h” depending on the country. These are simplified from actual observations, which record wind direction in degrees.
Professional meteorological observations use a standardized format called METAR, short for Meteorological Aerodrome Report. METAR data is generated at airports and weather stations around the world and expresses wind direction as a three-digit number in degrees true (relative to true north, not magnetic north). A wind from 020° in a METAR report corresponds closely to NNE. Research analyzing years of METAR data, such as studies of runway wind components at major airports, relies on these precise degree-based measurements rather than the 16-point abbreviations, because the exact angle matters for calculating crosswind and tailwind forces on aircraft.1Pamukkale Üniversitesi Mühendislik Bilimleri Dergisi. Wind-based runway configuration at Istanbul Airport: Computational modeling of crosswind and tailwind dynamics
When you look at a home weather station or a weather app, you might see either format. Some apps display “NNE” alongside the degree value, while others show a wind arrow. Watch for whether the arrow shows where the wind is coming from or where it is going. Most weather apps point the arrow in the direction the wind travels (so an NNE wind’s arrow would point toward SSW), but some use the opposite convention, with the arrow pointing toward the source. Check your app’s legend if the arrows ever seem backward.
What NNE Winds Mean for Your Local Weather
The character of an NNE wind depends entirely on your geography. Wind direction is one of the most location-dependent pieces of weather data there is, because what lies to your north-northeast determines what kind of air mass is arriving.
In the eastern United States, an NNE wind in winter often brings cold, dry continental air from interior Canada. Along the coast, that same NNE wind during a nor’easter storm can drive heavy precipitation onshore, since the storm’s counterclockwise circulation pulls maritime air from just off the coast. In the United Kingdom, NNE winds in winter and spring carry bitterly cold air from Scandinavia or the North Sea, often bringing sharp drops in temperature and sometimes snow showers to eastern England and Scotland.
In tropical and subtropical regions, persistent NNE winds may be part of the trade wind belt. The northeast trades blow from roughly NE to ENE across much of the tropics in the Northern Hemisphere, and NNE fits within that general pattern depending on season and latitude. Sailors and kite surfers in the Caribbean, for instance, pay close attention to whether the trades are running NE, NNE, or ENE, because even a modest shift changes which beaches get clean offshore conditions and which get choppy onshore chop.
The key point is that NNE tells you the compass direction the air is coming from, but the temperature, moisture, and stability of that air depend on the landscape and water bodies upwind. An NNE wind arriving over the Great Lakes in autumn might pick up moisture and dump lake-effect snow. That same NNE direction in Arizona means dry desert air with minimal cloud cover.
NNE in Aviation
Pilots care about wind direction down to the degree, because even small angular differences change how much crosswind hits a runway. Airports align their runways based on the prevailing wind patterns in the area, and runway designations are themselves compass headings rounded to the nearest ten degrees and divided by ten. A runway designated “02” is aligned to approximately 020° magnetic, which is close to NNE.
When air traffic controllers clear a pilot for takeoff or landing, they report the current wind as a direction and speed: “wind zero-two-zero at one-five” means wind from 020° (NNE) at 15 knots. The pilot then calculates the crosswind component, which is the portion of the wind hitting the aircraft from the side. Research into wind-based runway configurations uses years of METAR observations to resolve wind into along-runway and across-runway components, accounting for the difference between magnetic north (what the runway heading uses) and true north (what METAR wind directions reference).1Pamukkale Üniversitesi Mühendislik Bilimleri Dergisi. Wind-based runway configuration at Istanbul Airport: Computational modeling of crosswind and tailwind dynamics
For general aviation pilots at smaller airfields, an NNE wind means choosing to take off and land on whichever runway most closely faces into that direction. Landing into the wind shortens the ground roll and gives the pilot better control. If the airfield only has an east-west runway and the wind is from the NNE, the crosswind component could be substantial enough to require caution or even a diversion to a different airport.
Wind Direction and Air Quality
Wind direction determines where pollution from a source ends up. Environmental scientists use models that take the wind’s speed and direction as primary inputs to predict how a plume of emissions will spread. If a factory sits to your NNE, an NNE wind carries its emissions toward your location. Gaussian plume dispersion models, a standard tool in environmental impact assessments, require accurate wind direction data to estimate pollutant concentrations at ground level downwind of a source.2Tikrit Journal of Engineering Sciences. Air Pollution Dispersion Modeling from Point Sources using Gaussian Plume Model: A Case Study of Kirkuk
Cities routinely monitor wind direction alongside air quality measurements. When the wind shifts to blow from an industrial zone or a wildfire, air quality alerts follow. Knowing that NNE means “air arriving from the north-northeast” lets you quickly check a map and see what is upwind of your location. If there is a landfill, a refinery, or an active agricultural burn to your NNE, a shift to NNE winds means you might notice odors or haze that were absent before.
This same principle applies to pollen. During allergy season, wind direction determines which plants are sending their pollen your way. A large stand of ragweed to your north-northeast becomes your problem when the wind swings to NNE.
NNE on Weather Maps and Wind Roses
A wind rose is a circular diagram that shows how often the wind blows from each direction at a given location over a period of time. Each spoke of the diagram represents a compass direction, and its length indicates how frequently wind comes from that direction. If you look at the wind rose for a coastal city and see a long spoke pointing toward NNE, that means NNE winds are common there.
Wind roses are used by urban planners deciding where to place industrial zones relative to residential areas, by architects designing naturally ventilated buildings, and by engineers siting wind turbines. A wind rose showing dominant NNE winds would steer a planner to place pollution sources to the SSW of population centers, so the prevailing wind carries emissions away from people rather than toward them.
On synoptic weather maps (the large-scale maps that show pressure systems and fronts), wind direction is encoded by small barbs attached to station circles. The barb points in the direction the wind is coming from, and the number of ticks on the barb indicates speed. A barb pointing toward roughly NNE from a station circle means that location is experiencing an NNE wind. Meteorologists reading these maps can quickly see broad wind patterns across a region and infer what kind of air masses are in play.
Magnetic North Versus True North
When a weather report says “NNE,” it almost always refers to true north, which is the direction toward the geographic North Pole. Compasses, however, point toward magnetic north, which is offset from true north by an amount called magnetic declination. Depending on where you are on Earth, this offset can range from negligible to over 20 degrees.
For most weather purposes, the difference is small enough to ignore. If you are standing in central Europe, magnetic declination might be only a degree or two, so NNE on your compass and NNE in the forecast are essentially the same thing. In parts of northern Canada or near the magnetic poles, the declination can be large enough that a compass bearing of NNE might correspond to a true bearing that is noticeably different. Aviation wind reports specifically account for this: METAR winds are in degrees true, while runway headings use degrees magnetic, so pilots must mentally adjust when comparing the two.1Pamukkale Üniversitesi Mühendislik Bilimleri Dergisi. Wind-based runway configuration at Istanbul Airport: Computational modeling of crosswind and tailwind dynamics
If you are using a handheld compass outdoors to verify what the forecast is telling you, keep declination in mind. Most smartphone compass apps automatically correct for declination using your GPS location. A traditional magnetic compass does not, so in areas with significant declination, the compass reading needs manual adjustment to match what meteorological reports describe.
Common Mix-Ups With Compass Abbreviations
NNE is sometimes confused with ENE, which stands for east-northeast (67.5°). The two are 45 degrees apart, a meaningful difference. The naming logic follows a consistent pattern: the first letter is the nearest cardinal direction, and the last two letters are the nearest intercardinal direction. NNE is closer to north than to northeast. ENE is closer to east than to northeast. Once you internalize that the cardinal direction always comes first in these three-letter abbreviations, the system becomes intuitive.
Another common stumble is reading “NNE” as “north-north-east” and assuming it means two parts north and one part east, like a recipe. That is not quite how it works geometrically. NNE is simply the midpoint between N (0°) and NE (45°). The repeated “N” in the name signals that this direction is in the northern half of the N-to-NE arc, not that north is somehow weighted more heavily.
People also sometimes mix up wind direction with the direction they see things moving. If you watch clouds drifting toward the south-southwest, the wind driving them is from the NNE. But if you look at a weather vane, the pointer swings to face into the wind, so it would aim toward the NNE. Weather vanes and wind socks show the source direction. Clouds and smoke show the destination direction. Both are telling you the same thing about the wind, just from opposite perspectives.
Sailing, Surfing, and Outdoor Activities
For anyone spending time outdoors, NNE winds have practical consequences that go beyond temperature. Sailors on the water need to know the wind’s exact direction to set their sails efficiently. An NNE wind puts them on a specific point of sail relative to their heading, and even the difference between NNE and NE can require a sail adjustment. Racing sailors in particular parse 16-point compass shifts carefully, because a 20-degree wind shift can make or break a tactic on the racecourse.
Surfers look at wind direction to judge wave quality. An NNE wind is offshore (blowing from land to sea) on beaches that face roughly SSW, which grooms the waves and creates clean conditions. On a beach facing NNE, that same wind is directly onshore and tends to make the surf messy and choppy. Knowing the compass orientation of your local beach and pairing it with the forecast wind direction lets you predict whether conditions will be good before you make the drive.
Hikers and campers use wind direction when choosing a campsite. Setting up a tent with its low-profile end facing NNE during forecast NNE winds reduces flapping and improves warmth retention. Positioning a campfire so the NNE wind carries smoke away from the seating area means placing the fire to the NNE of where people will sit, since the wind will push the smoke toward the SSW. These are small details, but they separate a comfortable night outdoors from an annoying one.