(UPDATE! The best article to date that addresses the possibility that large scale wind farms can impact rainfall. Click here for article at FreeRepublic.com) Are Wind Turbines
Impacting Weather Patterns in South Texas? (Update: I have begun to get calls from people in various locations near this wind turbine array. Each caller expresses similar thoughts and experiences. Read more...) The drought has been miserable, hasn’t it? For many native Texans, like me, we understand that droughts come and go. We suffer through these periods of extreme weather because we know that the rains will return and south Texas will be beautiful again. "So far, a number of energy companies, especially in the United States and Europe, have made the choice [of using wind turbines] without knowing much about small-scale and large-scale climate impacts."
"Results from climate modeling studies by myself and others suggest that large-scale use of wind power can alter local and global climate." "Researchers are investigating the potential for large wind farms in one region to alter weather patterns in another region
downwind." “as the technology ramps up, so hopefully we don’t get into really surprising consequences before we have a chance to realize what they might be.” Daniel Kirk-Davidoff "But a team of researchers from the University of Maryland have found that large-scale use of wind turbines as a power source may have an impact on our environment directly opposite that which they purport to minimize: Climate change."
"Researchers are investigating the potential for large wind farms in one region to alter weather patterns in another region downwind. Specifically, the turning of the windmill propellers creates considerable turbulence, which mixes air up and down." "A forecast for a hotter, drier Earth could result if we build too many wind power generating plants throughout the world."
"But important questions remain: Could large wind farms, whipping up the air with massive whirling blades, alter local weather conditions?"
"Extracting energy from wind changes regional air currents, which can in turn affect how the nearby ocean circulates, according to Goran Brostrom of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo."
"Meneveau pointed out that dense clusters of wind turbines also could affect nearby temperatures and humidity levels, and cumulatively, perhaps, alter local weather conditions." "That being so, it’s logical to assume a massive windmill deployment could at least alter regional weather patterns. "Atmospheric scientist Daniel Kirk-Davidoff and his colleague Daniel Barrie calculated the effect of covering the Midwest with a grid of wind farms containing thousands of wind turbines. The result? Wind speeds lowered 5.5-5.7 miles per hour directly downwind. That's not too scary by itself, but the turbines also caused massive disruptions in air currents, leading to changes in the strength, motion and timing of storms over the entire North Atlantic." Let me be clear: none of the above articles address south Texas in particular. There IS NO research on this topic. Most of the tiny pool of research that these quotes emerge from are addressing other specific weather abnormalities. But I'll summarize my thoughts from reading all these articles in the following: Very little research has been done on the cause and effect relationship between wind turbines and their effect on regional weather patterns. This research is in its infancy. We have only just begun to understand how wind turbines effect weather. I'm greatly disturbed to think how little we know about all this as we march forward in the great experiment we call wind generation. I only rely on anecdotal evidence, but it seems like we’re getting less and less rainfall from frontal precipitation, our bread and butter source of moisture that predominantly falls in May and September. When you consider that the world’s largest “experiment” with wind energy lies directly in the path of the weather pattern that brings frontal precipitation to our area, it makes you wonder. Could this enormous windmill deployment be slowing the progression of some of those cold fronts? Isn’t it ironic that the area of severe drought lies just beyond the area where these wind turbines are deployed?
See my pitiful little
map. Are wind farms changing weather patterns in south Texas? We don't know. Is there a high probability all this is happening? Maybe not. My point is this: maybe weather isn't impacted by wind turbines. But on the slim, outside chance it is, the result could be catastrophic for San Antonio. I believe we need to be
asking some serious questions. Will thousands of windmills in west Texas reduce our annual rainfall totals? And if so, how would it then translate into lower lake levels, underground water, and river flows in an area that is already at the "breaking point" with water constraints? Will it have any effect on the lives of people living in the seventh largest city in the U.S.? Will it be a "tipping point" in
having adequate water supplies in San Antonio? Too many environmentalists
are knee deep in "the cause". For them, it's become more
religion than science. Too many academics are busying themselves creating
formulas. Too many scientists won't be bothered with our little problems
in south Texas. For me, I'm thinking about my eighty year old neighbor who is
walking across her yard carrying water in a bucket in order to be in
compliance with city watering restrictions.
YouTube Video on west Texas Wind Farm
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"Very little research has been done on the cause and effect relationship between wind turbines and their effect on regional weather patterns. This research is in its infancy. We have only just begun to understand how wind turbines effect weather. I'm greatly disturbed to think how little we know about all this as we march forward in the great experiment we call wind generation." |
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wind turbines and weather patterns |
