How Wind Farms Affect Weather Forecasting
Wind farms have been touted as a means to help reduce the impact of climate change, but new research is emerging that shows wind farms can actually decrease the accuracy of weather forecasting. This is obviously problematic because utility emergency preparedness depends on accurate forecasting.
The Negative Impact of Wind Farms
Doppler radar measures motion, so when turbine blades are spinning, it can produce false signals. According to research from the National Weather Service (NWS), this has the potential to negatively impact weather forecast accuracy in several ways:
- The blades on wind turbines can block portions of the “energy beam” that NWS radar systems project to gather weather data, which could delay thunderstorm tracking and tornado warnings.
- Wind turbine “clutter” can create false-positives that indicate severe weather during non-storm times.
- Turbines can interfere with radar’s ability to accurately predict rainfall amounts – the result is typically an underestimation of precipitation totals.
- The movement of the turbines themselves can interfere with radar’s ability to monitor wind speeds, negatively impacting wind, hail and tornado warnings.
For a more technical explanation, here’s a lengthy article that describes the science behind the impact of wind farms on weather forecasting accuracy.
In my opinion, this presents a unique problem that doesn’t seem to have a good solution. On the one hand, renewable energy sources like wind farms help reduce reliance on coal power and fossil fuels. On the other hand, there is a safety issue at play here – in the most severe cases, people could literally die if they make decisions based on erroneous weather data. Plus, it makes our jobs as utility emergency preparedness pros trickier; good decisions require good data.
Hopefully technology will win in the end, with the NWS or a private company coming up with a new type of weather radar that overcomes the wind turbine difficulties. Until then, it’s going to be one heck of a debate.
