Wind farms interfering with weather radar in NY

Tue, Oct. 13, 2009
WILLIAM KATES
The Associated Press

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Wind farms in upstate New York are interfering with National Weather Service Doppler radars, making it more difficult to detect and assess approaching lake effect snow storms.

The spinning blades on the towering turbines can cause problems by reflecting some of the radar's signal, which can be falsely interpreted as wind or precipitation. The reflections can make storms coming off lakes Erie and Ontario look stronger than they actually are, but the structures can also act like a wall and hide a storm from forecasters.

"It's more of an annoyance than a critical issue," said Bill Hibbert, a meteorologist and radar specialist with the weather service in Buffalo. "But it's a growing problem, and there's not really anything that can be done about it right now."

In western states, where wind farms abound and destructive tornados are a concern, the interference has led to false tornado alerts. the rest image by johndan