Wind run historical data

[anthropocene]

As well as all the more well known effects of climate change, one noticeable change (here in the UK at least) appear to be the reduction in the overall amount of wind. From 30 to 40 years ago there seem to be many more completely still days with no wind. Of course, when there are storms these tend to be stronger with higher wind strengths but I would guess that this is more than compensated for by the increase in "quiet" days. For days one end the weather seems to get stuck in a mode with no or little wind. Good for cyclists, not so good for kite fliers.  The above is all subjective of course. What would be nice would be quantitative data to back this up. Since the strength of the wind is so variable I would guess this would be best measured by the total "wind run" (the total distance the wind would have traveled over the period time = wind speed x amount of time at that speed). Best would be this figure totalled over a period of time e.g. monthly values.
  I haven't been able to find any historical data for the wind run or wind strength. Does anybody know where this sort of data may be found (specifically for the UK) and whether this data is actually measured? Is it gathered consistently around the world?

[sidd]

Mebbe look at the ERA reanalysis ?

[Alison]

one noticeable change (here in the UK at least) appear to be the reduction in the overall amount of wind.

Personal experience as well as conversations with friends has provided considerable anecdotal evidence to support this view. Certainly four or five decades ago there appear to have been many more days with moderate winds.

[anthropocene]

Thanks for the reply Alison - at least it's not just me then ;-)

The lack of responses seems to suggest that this is something which is either not measured systematically or data is not made publicly available. Which is surprising really because of all the other areas which I would have thought could potentially be impacted by reduction in wind e.g.  air pollution, air borne spread of pollen etc,  and of course power generation.

[sidd]

I repeat, look at ERA.

https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.erainterim.html

they have wind.

sidd

[sidd]

here, for example are two sets of comparisons for the area around the UK (co-ordinates are in the pictures)
as histograms of windspeeds, made using the Giovanni portal. The first and second image ae for the periods 1948-1980 to 1980-2010 from GLDAS. The third and fourth images compare 1980-1990 to 2006-2016 from MERRA-2.

The Giovanni portal is just one you can use, it is at

https://giovanni.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/

sidd

[GeoffBeacon]

Any correlation with changes in the Jet Stream?

[sidd]

Re: correlation with jet stream

I have done no tests for that.

Some remarks:

To my eye the variation is within  the std deviation, but thats just my eye, I could b wrong. I havent done the analysis, but one can download the data as well as grafs from giovanni and other portals.  I have not done analysis for land-only or anything else, for I am short of time. But I am sure those more interested will do so.

In a larger sense I would not expect fossil CO2 forced variation signal  to emerge in such a small area over 30 yrs or even 60. Someone should (and probably has) done a worldwide analysis in the peer reviewed literature, but i have no time to search for it.

Caveat: Giovanni informs that it will require earthdata login from nov 23rd. That is easy to get, follow the instructions.

sidd