The effect of a giant wind farm on precipitation in a regional climate model

The boundary conditions to WRF are supplied by 62 years of NCEP/NCAR global reanalysis. In the model, the presence of a mid-west wind farm, either giant or small, can have an enormous impact on the weather and the rainfall amount for one season, consistent with the known sensitivity of long-term weather forecasts to initial conditions.

The effect on climate is less. In the average precipitation of 62 warms seasons, there is a statistically-significant 1.0% enhancement of precipitation in a multi-state area surrounding and to the south-east of the wind farm.