Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => The Environment => Topic started by: MeganM on 18/02/2020 15:20:08
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We've received this question:
Are average wind speeds increasing with progressing climate change?
Does anyone have any thoughts?
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They should be increasing slightly because the equator is warming, but the poles (until they melt entirely) are being kept cool by ice at roughly constant surface temperature, so there's a greater temperature difference which should drive faster winds.
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Yes they are, during the recent cesation in global warming, the media suddenly decided to use the phrase global weirding to explain away the lack of warming. All forgotten like a rewrite from the ministry of information.
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Since 2010 the global average wind speed has increased from about 7 mph to about 7.4 mph. That might not seem much, but for the average wind turbine study suggests a 17% increase in potential wind energy.
This increase is an average and actual increases (or decreases) depend very much on location and specific heating in those areas. There will also be some periods of average decrease, but the overall trend appears to be up at the moment.
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Yes they are, during the recent cesation in global warming, the media suddenly decided to use the phrase global weirding to explain away the lack of warming. All forgotten like a rewrite from the ministry if information.
Recent cessation in global warming??? The five hottest years on record (the last 140 years) were all in the last six years!
Just because the trend is not perfectly monotonic does not mean that the trend is reversing. Quite the opposite, it appears to be accelerating.
"Global weirding" and "climate change" are more accurate when thinking about local effects. The data very strongly indicate that overall temperatures across the globe are averaging slightly higher, hence the term "global warming" But because this has led to changes in ocean currents and jet streams and available moisture and many other factors beyond simply adding up all of the thermal energy in the world, some areas occasionally experience record-breaking (compared to the last few centuries) cold, draught, flooding, heat, winds, tides, etc. etc.
People get confused when record breaking chills are ascribed to global warming, but when one considers how many factors go into determining what the whether is at any given point in time and space, one can start to appreciate how tweaking the system will result in all sorts of wacky localized effects.
https://www.noaa.gov/news/2019-was-2nd-hottest-year-on-record-for-earth-say-noaa-nasa
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I take your piont indomitably O'Brian
Note the dates
havn 'eard noo critter say of "global weirding " in, well mus' be niy on 50 moons nao like, wel I gus' im jus' rumumuburun' foggy once agin' hyk.
Cuss you golstein!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25944823
https://dailycaller.com/2013/12/16/global-warming-satellite-data-shows-arctic-sea-ice-coverage-up-50-percent/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/07/climate-forecasting-for-the-21st-century/
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/622043/GLOBAL-WARMING-NASA-Antarctic-COOLING-six-years-Arctic-north-pole-climate-change
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If the atmosphere gets warmer, you would certainly expect the lower level wind speeds to increase as increased convection will increase mixing between surface and upper levels. This will lead to an increase in wind power generation, slightly mitigated by the decrease in air density.
The only mystery is what defines average global wind speed, and how it is measured.
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In general, the greenhouse effect couples more energy from the Sun into the atmosphere.
That's going to increase windspeeds.