Wind Farms Controlling Weather?

In the United States, wind power only accounts for one percent of all electricity generation.  The industry as a whole, however, is growing rapidly and plans are in the work for the country to generate 30 percent of all it's electricity by wind by 2030.  Large wind turbines like these may soon become a common, everyday sight.

But what kind of effect will these large devices have on climate patterns?  In a recent computer model demonstration, wind turbines were places from Texas to Canada, from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains.  The results, were alarming:

"On average, the mammoth installation lowered wind speeds by 5.5-6.7 miles per hour immediately downwind," said an MSNBC.com article.  "The turbines also disrupted air currents on a large scale that rippled out like waves across the northern hemisphere.  As they spread out, the waves sometimes ran into storm systems a few days later, knocking them several hundred miles off course."

Scientists have looked to using these turbines to control storm paths.

"Let's say a big snow story is headed for New York City and if you leave the wind farms on, it has an 80 percent chance of hitting, but if you turn them off, there's only a 40 percent chance," said Daniel Kirk-Davidoff of the University of Maryland.  "That's about the best we could probably ever do, because weather forecasting is full of uncertainty."

Looks like weather forecasters may soon have a new variable to throw into the mix when creating weather outlooks!

-Michael Strachan