January 23, 2013
Wales

Planned windfarms ‘could affect Met Office forecasts’

23 January 2013 | www.cambrian-news.co.uk

A series of windfarms planned in Carmarthenshire could lead to frequent false warnings of intense rainfall or even missed forecasts of severe downpours in the Teifi Valley, the Met Office has warned.

The Met Office has said that the turbines could interfere with its radars so much that warnings of the severe flooding of areas of Ceredigion, similar to the catastrophic scenes in July, could be missed.

It has lodged objections to a planned 21 turbine at Llanllwni which is currently under appeal and is considering lodging a formal objection to a similar development at Brechfa Forest West where an extra 28 turbines are under consideration by Carmarthenshire planners.

An objection was not lodged to the Brechfa development following a “human error” at the MoD which co-ordinates objections connected with radar.

The Met Office were not consulted, a series of emails gathered by protesters against the scheme under the Freedom of Information Act have shown, despite “serious concerns” over the effect of the plan.

It follows Met Office analysis of the effect of the nearby Alltwalis wind-farm of 10 turbines opened in 2010, which the Met Office said is already affecting its Ceredigion weather radar station 14 miles away at Crug-y-Gorllwyn.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/01/23/planned-windfarms-could-affect-met-office-forecasts/