The U.S. east coast is an active area of offshore wind energy development. Initial results from numerical modeling studies suggest it has both a very good resource and relatively benign extreme wind and wave climate. It also has close proximity to large load centers. Here we present analyses of data from lidar systems mounted on buoys and very high-resolution simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model designed to address the following two research questions: (1) Is there evidence of a high frequency of low-level jets (LLJ) and/or other conditions that would lead to strong deviation from the expected logarithmic wind profile? (2) Is there evidence for large spatial gradients in wind conditions across the lease areas? With respect to the first question, results of analyses from both the WRF simulations and the buoys suggest that LLJ at heights within the rotor plane are relatively infrequent but that there are occasional periods with negative shear and strong seasonality in stability conditions and thus marked deviations from the logarithmic profile in the New York Bight. LLJ are considerably more common in the offshore lease areas to the north (south of Massachusetts). Results from our WRF modeling suggest there is a measurable and important gradient in wind speeds at hub-height over the New York Bight lease areas and hence that they are frequently within the coastal adjustment zone as flow moves offshore.