The National Weather Service says a wind farm in Wyoming County is interfering with its doppler radar at the Buffalo Airport.
The NWS office in Cheektowaga monitors conditions across the area so planes can land safely at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Meteorologists at the office also issue advisories, watches, and warnings about severe weather that could impact communities across Western New York.
On its website, the NWS comments about the wind farms, saying: "In Western New York, some of the bigger projects include the towns of Sheldon, Wethersfield, Eagle/Bliss in Wyoming county. These farms are located between 20 miles and 35 miles directly southeast of the Weather Surveillance Doppler Radar located at the National Weather Service office in Cheektowaga (KBUF) in northern Erie County. The towers are on top of ridges at elevations that exceed 1600 feet above mean sea level.
Unfortunately, the Wyoming county wind farms and their turbines are within the radar line of sight (RLOS) of the NWS doppler radar in Cheektowaga. The height of the wind turbine towers are about 265 feet above the ground, and the turbine blades extend an additional 125 feet. Hence, the top of the wind turbine rotors are about 400 feet above the ground in western and southern Wyoming County.
At this height, the rotating turbine blades of the wind farm impact the KBUF Doppler Radar beam.
A small part of the electromagnetic energy radar beam sent from the radar is reflected back by the rotating turbines. The radar processes this "returned energy" as an area of precipitation and plots it accordingly on the map."
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