Extended Abstract (336K)J3.14
Maximum Wind Gust Return Periods for Oklahoma Using the Oklahoma Mesonet
Andrew J. Reader, Oklahoma Climatological Survey, Norman, OK
The spring and fall convective seasons in Oklahoma have produced numerous severe wind gusts throughout the history of the Oklahoma Mesonet. Improved knowledge of the frequency and severity of these wind gusts are important to structural engineers and wind energy producers, as well as the general public. This study determines the frequency of high-end severe wind gust events across the state using data from the Oklahoma Mesonet. The Oklahoma Mesonet provides a network of 117 automated weather stations across the state, and daily maximum wind gust values were used from each site.
This study utilizes the Weibull distribution, which is most often used in atmospheric sciences to model wind speed distributions. A goodness-of-fit test is run to decide whether or not the data fits this distribution. The study also incorporates the use of probability weighted linearized moments, or L-moments, in the calculations because being linear functions of the data, they suffer less from the effects of sampling variability. Finally, the generated results from the study will be presented and discussed, as well as the possible applications of the data.
Joint Session 3, Observations and Data Sets (Joint between 14th Symposium on Meteorological Observations and Instrumentation and the 16th Conference on Applied Climatology)
Thursday, 18 January 2007, 8:30 AM-5:30 PM, 206A
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