Not so windy: Research suggests winds dying down

WASHINGTON -- The wind, a favorite power source of the green energy movement, seems to be dying down across the United States. And the cause, ironically, may be global warming - the very problem wind power seeks to address.

The idea that winds may be slowing is still a speculative one, and scientists disagree whether that is happening. But a first-of-its-kind study suggests that average and peak wind speeds have been noticeably slowing since 1973, especially in the Midwest and the East.

"It's a very large effect," said study co-author Eugene Takle, a professor of atmospheric science at Iowa State University. In some places in the Midwest, the trend shows a 10 percent drop or more over a decade. That adds up when the average wind speed in the region is about 10 to 12 miles per hour.

There's been a jump in the number of low or no wind days in the Midwest, said the study's lead author, Sara Pryor, an atmospheric scientist at Indiana University.

Wind measurements plotted out on U.S. maps by Pryor show wind speeds falling mostly along and east of the Mississippi River. Some areas that are banking on wind power, such as west Texas and parts of the Northern Plains, do not show winds slowing nearly as much. Yet, states such as Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, northern Maine and western Montana show some of the biggest drop in wind speeds.

More: http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1424787.html

Northern Maine is putting up windmills hand over fist...so let's hope this is a temporary situation.

it's been violently windy for quite a few days over the last month.

And the polar regions of the planet are heating up much faster than the rest of the world. So, if you have the average temp. of the Arctic jump 10F, while the average temp of the Midwest only goes up 2F, the winds will begin to slow as the difference between the two area's temperatures decreases.

It's windier in SE Texas now, maybe because of all the deforestation of the Piney Woods due to urban sprawl. The last three springs, we have had 20-30 mph winds, and that is new.