Breaking: Destructive tornado hits Oklahoma

A two mile wide trail of destruction is sweeping across Oklahoma. I expect WUWT will pick this one up. Maybe Tim C will update as more news comes in.

CNN reported quoting local witnesses reported that when the violent tornado that is ‘struck the Town of Moore, near Oklahoma City destroyed two schools, one in 75 children were present, but that’ it sarbbero repaired in an underground shelter. Thirty were already ‘rescued. This is the school of Moore Plaza Towers, a suburb of the city ‘. Emergency services are working to rescue the survivors.

[Tim adds]  This seems to have been a monster in an area used to tornadoes, the details will trickle out over the coming days.

Shards of Shattered Turbine Blades Shower Scenic Spot

From the Halifax Courier: Published on 08/05/2013 16:56

Walkers had a narrow escape as blades on a wind turbine ripped off in high winds across common moor land.

The 17m turbine blades split and scattered across Ovenden Moor Wind Farm, Cold Edge Road, Wainstalls, Halifax.

Walkers and local residents were stunned at what could have been a nasty accident and fear for further blade breakages.

Energy provider E-on has a total of 23 wind turbines which tower at 32 metres tall on Ovenden Moor Wind Farm.

After the accident, a workman erected a safety fence around the turbine and a sign saying “danger, falling objects” was attached to the moor entrance gate.

But local resident Ann Arran, 64, of Lower Hazel Hurst Farm, Wainstalls, Halifax, who discovered blade debris said: “The safety fence they’re erecting after the carnage is inadequate as broken blade pieces could fly and land anywhere in high winds.”

Sue Midgley, 37, of Spring Mill Fold, Wainstalls, was out walking with Ann. “I couldn’t believe what we saw, it was frightening having to continue walking across the land.”

Ann said:

“At any minute more of the blades could shatter and who knows how long it will be until other turbine blades break – with disastrous consequences.

“It’s public land. More must be done to protect the people.”

Bing browser map of the site here

Is wind energy’s future bladeless?

From the “Why didn’t we do some more R&D before carpeting the country in useless bird killing machines” department:

The Saphon device wobbles in a 3D knot shape generating electricity via pistons at the same time (Source: Saphon)

A Tunisian wind energy startup says it is in talks with a number of major industrial players as it looks to move its bladeless wind towers to a commercial scale.

Saphon Energy’s sail inspired towers wobble in the wind, with pistons converting kinetic energy to electricity. It says that by removing blades and gearboxes it can “comfortably” reduce the cost of wind energy by 25%.

Empirical tests it has conducted suggest bladeless wind devices could be 2.3 to 2.5 times more efficient than three-blade turbines, capturing about 60-70% of the wind’s kinetic energy.

Chilbolton Observatory unofficial dataset, numeric and plots

Example data. Lidar is useful in identifying cloud layers, clear sky, it cannot though see multiple layers, where radar images if available are more useful. Click to open full size.

[UPDATE 2013/05/05,  archive release with corrections] An unofficial high resolution dataset has been derived from web published graphs running from 16th February 2013 to 20th April 2013 (less 23rd Feb), just over 60 days of data at about 2.3 minutes resolution for about 23 hours a day. The data includes atmospheric water parameters and thermal radiation parameters, all measured from surface level. Archive period includes the exceptionally cold March 2013. The weather hereabouts was cold but unlike most of the rest of the UK there was little snow, nor was the temperature very low.

Aberdeenshire wind Turbine Collapses in 70mph Wind

So it wasn’t just my greenhouse which got destroyed in the gales on earlier this week. This from the Industrial Wind Action Group:

Wind turbine collapses after bring battered by 70mph gales at farm

A 90ft turbine in Aberdeenshire has fallen after being battered by 70mph gales.

“It’s worrying because there are so many turbines in this area. If someone had been walking by when this came down it could have been very serious.”

April 18, 2013 in STV News

A 90ft turbine in Aberdeenshire has fallen after being battered by 70mph gales.The turbine is one of two belonging to Jim Anderson at his Ardiffery Mains home in Hatton.Following a night of gales Mr Anderson woke to find his turbine felled and the three blades scattered across the field. He used a tractor with a digger to gather them on Wednesday.

The Great Greenhouse Catastrophe of 2013

Lying in bed late last night as the wind shrieked itself into a howling gale, I heard the tinkling of breaking glass. Upon inspection through the bedroom window this morning, I was dismayed to see my greenhouse has been ripped off its moorings and thrown bodily against the dry-stone wall at the boundary of my garden.

It’s trashed. The frames are bent, and there’s broken glass everywhere

That certainly was a severe gale! High Bradfield, South Yorks Pennines had 78mph gust this morning. 67mph Church Fenton & 60mph Waddington

— Paul Hudson(@Hudsonweather) April 18, 2013

 

Fresh Challenges for European Electricity Grid Stability

From Reuters - H/T to Richard Tol:

Czech grid acts to guard against German wind power surges

Wed, Apr 17 17:49 PM BST

By Jan Lopatka

PRAGUE, April 17 (Reuters) – Czech grid operator CEPS has backed a plan to build transformers to guard against excess flows of German wind-produced electricity which threaten neighbouring transmission systems, a CEPS official said on Wednesday.

The move could complicate efforts to find a regional solution to the problem of surges of renewable electricity from Germany.

CEPS Supervisory Board Chairman Tomas Huener told Reuters that the board approved a plan to install phase-shifters, or transformers, which will protect the Czech grid and could be built by 2016.

Judge gives energy firms the right to build 400ft Wind Turbines 1/4 mile from peoples homes

A Stihl saw and diamond wheel should sort this problem out:

Photo-Alamy

Energy firms will be allowed to build giant wind turbines just 350 metres from residential areas after a crucial ruling by a High Court judge.

The judge decided that a council’s attempt to impose a minimum distance of 1.2km (three quarters of a mile) between wind farms and people’s homes was unlawful, in a test case that could have far-reaching consequences for national planning laws.

Milton Keynes Borough Council in Buckinghamshire tried to prevent the wind energy firm RWE Npower Renewables Ltd from erecting 125 metre high turbines less than 1,217 metres from homes after it put in planning applications for two wind farms in the borough.

North Sea fisheries making a recovery: Cooler seas, busier plankton?

Roger Harrabin has spotted this report on Scottish North Sea Fish Stocks which is of interest to us climateers. The American fisheries organisation the FAO produced a longer time span report some years ago which found certain fish stocks around the Americas correlated quite well with changes in Length of Day (LOD) and detrended global temperature. Maybe this Scottish fisheries report is telling us something about the upper ocean heat content and the abundance of biota further down the food chain.

Dramatic pictures of west Scotland wildfires

Wildfires are burning in parts of western Scotland, partly blamed on unusually dry conditions in what is traditionally a very wet part of the UK.

At this time of the year burning off dead heather and grass is common practice, helps to regenerate grazing.

This year there has been a prolonged easterly airflow over the UK, originating as intensely cold are over Norway, picking up a little moisture over the North Sea before perhaps Fohn conditions if any snow fell over the central mountains. This would lead to drying of the air and also being in the rain shadow, no rain or snow.