Ticker for February 12, 2002

                
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February 12, 2002  February 12, 2002  February 12, 2002  February 12, 2002


News Flash: In Oklahoma, it's Windier During the Day

The Ticker's not exactly breaking new ground with this revelation, but
Oklahoma's windiest hours come during the day.

The density and quality of Oklahoma Mesonet wind observations makes
possible a detailed study of Oklahoma's wind climatology.  With eight
years (1994-2001) of Mesonet data under our belt, the Ticker has
recently focused on the variance of wind speed by location and season.
Today, we'll look at the diurnal distribution of wind wpeed, or how it
varies by time of day.

The following graph represents a composite of eight years of data from
nine Mesonet stations, one in each of Oklahoma's nine climate divisions:



There are eight sets of bars; each set represents a three-hour period
during the day.  The individual bars represent wind speed category.
For example, the leftmost set represents the midnight-to-3am time
period.  During these hours, wind speeds are 6-10 mph about 40% of
the time, and 1-5 mph about 29% of the time.

An obvious overall trend is the consistency of frequency of 6-10 mph
wind speed observations.  Regardless of the time of day, this wind speed
category is the most common, with an observation rate at about 40%.  The
battle for second place oscillates between slightly lighter winds (dark
red bars) during the nighttime hours and slightly stronger winds (baby
blue bars) during the daylight hours.  This shift represents the
typically brisker winds felt during the day in Oklahoma.

Of course, these distributions vary by season, by region, and even by
wind direction.  OCS is compiling a number of wind speed and direction
distributions, commonly called wind roses, for many of these categories.
These data are important to a number of operations, including
construction and engineering firms, agriculture and even those who
are harnessing wind energy itself.

The Ticker's fixation on the climatology of Oklahoma's wind will
continue later this week.