Posted on 04/30/2012 12:58:21 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Usually at night the air closer to the ground becomes colder when the sun goes down and the earth cools.
But on huge wind farms the motion of the turbines mixes the air higher in the atmosphere that is warmer, pushing up the overall temperature.
Satellite data over a large area in Texas, that is now covered by four of the world's largest wind farms, found that over a decade the local temperature went up by almost 1C as more turbines are built.
This could have long term effects on wildlife living in the immediate areas of larger wind farms.
It could also affect regional weather patterns as warmer areas affect the formation of cloud and even wind speeds.
It is reported China is now erecting 36 wind turbines every day and Texas is the largest producer of wind power in the US.
Liming Zhou, Research Associate Professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University of New York, who led the study, said further research is needed into the affect of the new technology on the wider environment.
"Wind energy is among the world’s fastest growing sources of energy. The US wind industry has experienced a remarkably rapid expansion of capacity in recent years,” he said. “While converting wind’s kinetic energy into electricity, wind turbines modify surface-atmosphere exchanges and transfer of energy, momentum, mass and moisture within the atmosphere. These changes, if spatially large enough, might have noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate.”
The study, published in Nature, found a “significant warming trend” of up to 0.72C (1.37F) per decade, particularly at night-time, over wind farms relative to near-by non-wind-farm regions.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Wind Farms Cause Global Warming!
Talk about irony...and hilarity.
The good Lord has a sense of humor. This is as classic as all the global warming marches that have been snowed out.
I’ve long been concerned about the possible effects wind farms on lake Michigan could have on weather patterns here. We have a rain/snow belt along the lake as it is and we really don’t know what putting hundreds of wind turbines just offshore will do.
Slowing down the wind does affect the weather. North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa and other states all impliment a phenominia called “Shelter Belts” in their agricultural areas. To help prevent a “Dust Bowl” effect that was so devastating in the 1930’s, rows of trees are planted along farmer’s “Sections”, these rows of trees run generally East-West, and slow the winds.
I’ve been told that prior to the 1930’s, the rainfall today in America’s heartland is almost double what it was. I would call this “a good thing”.
So now we know whom is actually behind AGW. It’s Wile E. Coyote with his bag of ACME brilliance.
Next time you are in wine country, check out the Wind Machines.
The purpose of these windmills is not to generate electricity. In fact, they are powered by electic motors, and their purpose is to disturb the airflow over the vinyard to keep the ground level warmer at night.
They have been using these things out in California for as long as I can remember, so at least thirty years. This is not exactly a newly discovered phenomenon.
Just curious about something. Do you get afternoon thunderboomers in the summer along the waterfront and up to about 40 or 50 miles inland? We had that along the gulf coast of Al and Ms in the hot season. You can almost set your clock by them at 2 or 3pm. Heat invection showers or something like that, based on temp differences of the land and water or something.
I said this in a thread this morning ... if you slow down or disrupt the available wind, then that is not going to dissipate the heat near the ground as efficiently. And considering that every windmill has a strip of bare dirt leading up to it, the bare dirt is going to act as a heat sink. Either of these factors would result in higher temperatures, so both together must.
I recently read about them flying helicopters over the orchards on cold nights here in northern Michigan to help gut down on crop loss due to frost.
This study must be ridiculed and destroyed. It does not fit the current liberal media Groupthink, and it is not Democrat-Party Approved.
You muss be a rassiss for posting this.
We enjoyed picking apples a couple of years ago when we were there. It was at a farm near the Hidden Lake Gardens. We hope to vist Mi again sometime, it is a beautiful state in the countryside.
I think I directed you to hidden lake gardens.
Yea you did. I wasn’t sure that you would remember doing that. We took some great pictures there. I took 780 pics in two days. in Mi.
If you like the wilderness Northern Michigan is the place to go. Personally I prefer staying in the state parks to the national parks. However Grand Marais has a campground right there in town. I never thought I’d like it but found it to be very enjoyable.
Kid Rock is a fellow Michigan booster who made this great video in Michigan and started a mini boom in the upper peninsula.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tbbrtaNiQMs
Most weather, such as thunderstorms, cloud cover, rain, snow, fog, all starts at the surface with water evaporation. If we extract large amounts of wind energy from the very thin band of atmosphere where water evaporation takes place we are going to change the weather. It might change for the better, but countering man-made climate change by creating new man-made climate change makes absolutely no sense.
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