So much wind over the last 5 months

[Sirzones]

Feels like hurricane season forgot to leave this year, haha

[GordMay]

Fascinating!

The most recent report, by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, expects that, in most regions, the mean wind speed will decrease as a result of climate change.

Between 1979 and 2018, global mean land wind speed (excluding Australia) showed a reduction of 0.063m per second every decade.

Figures from Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation programme, show that wind speeds have shifted in different ways in different parts of Europe, with northern European countries seeing faster winds now, compared with 40 years ago, while central Europe has seen wind speeds diminish.

Even small differences in wind speeds could have a large impact on wind power output.
The amount of electricity generated by a turbine is mostly determined by wind speed, and the power output will increase cubically with the speed.
In other words: if the wind speed doubles, the power output will increase eight times, and vice versa.

The reductions in near-surface wind speeds, could be due to a phenomenon called “global stilling”.

This can be explained by the cold Arctic warming at a faster rate, than equatorial regions, which means there is less difference in temperature, between hot and cold areas. This temperature difference is what drives large-scale winds around the globe, through a phenomenon called "thermal wind balance".

A study [1], into the increasing sensitivity of power systems, to climate variability, suggests that long-term, year-to-year fluctuations, should be taken into consideration more, especially as renewables continue to expand.


[1] “Quantifying the increasing sensitivity of power systems to climate variability” ~ by H C Bloomfield et al [14 December 2016]
➥ https://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...6/11/12/124025

[GordMay]

FWIW:
Wind Speed - Monthly data for St. John's, Newfoundland
➥ https://stjohns.weatherstats.ca/char...d-monthly.html

I was unable to find Historic data for St. John's Wind Speed, for comparison.
Do you have any data?

[Sirzones]

No sorry Gord, I’ve just been speaking with old timers and watching the windy app
This winter there has been a lot of trees blown down, more than most have seen

[5BTM]

Originally Posted by Sirzones

No sorry Gord, I’ve just been speaking with old timers and watching the windy app
This winter there has been a lot of trees blown down, more than most have seen

Just like the old timers, the trees have gotten older.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by 5BTM

Just like the old timers, the trees have gotten older.

Q: How do you know a palm tree is getting old?
A: It’s coconuts hang lower than its trunk.


Blue indicates areas of diminished winds, and green indicates increased winds.
Note: Nfld is in the green [increased] zone.