Iowa’s recent winter Storms have lead to record wind electric generation for MidAmerican Energy, according to company spokesman Geoff Greenwood .
Greenwood says he wasn’t surprised by the result because wind turbines generate more energy in winter.
“We had a couple of winter storms that blew through Iowa literally, and we had a lot of snow followed by a couple of bouts of very strong winds. And that wind energy is something that we harness.”
The winds were so strong last Friday that MidAmerican set a new wind energy record.
“During that day we generated 158, 000 megawatt hours of energy and that’s all from the wind.”
In cold weather, ice can build up on wind turbine blades. If that happens, Greenwood says the company uses a sensor system to shut them down until it is safe to resume operation. The company can also adjust the speed of turbine blades if the wind gets too strong. MidAmerican has more than 35 wind farm locations.
https://www.midamericanenergy.com/media/pdf/iowa-wind-farm-locations.pdf
Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased slightly to 3.2 percent in December due to hiring gains in construction and manufacturing. Iowa Workforce Development says today that the state’s jobless rate was 3.3 percent last month and 3.0 percent one year ago. The U.S. unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent. https://bitly.ws/3ahH9
Iowa’s labor force participation rate dropped to 67.7 percent in December, down 0.4 percent from last month, because 8,500 Iowans left the workforce. Most of those Iowans exited the workforce voluntarily.
Extreme drought has ebbed a bit in Northwest Iowa, but the extreme southeast part of the state is in bad shape. Seeing all the recent snow, one might ask if several feet of snow could ease Iowa's drought. https://bitly.ws/3ahHf
State climatologist Justin Glisan says any moisture could help, but we must consider soil temperature as well, which could create a wall that keeps out moisture.
“Much of the northern 2/3 of the state we have frost depths of anywhere from five to nine inches. So, the snow is sitting on top of frozen soils. So it’s not really infiltrating.”
Glisan says as temperatures get into the 30s next week, we will see the effects of melting snow in stream flows in Iowa. But some parts of the state will need more moisture to recover.
“This is the 186th consecutive week of D1 drought somewhere in the state, and northwest Iowa was particularly dry for the first three years of the drought. Now it’s among the wetter parts of the state, if you can say wetter parts of the state.”
D1 drought is usually marked by some damage to crops and pastures; low streams, reservoirs, or wells, as well as some water shortages and voluntary water-use restrictions. https://bitly.ws/3ahHj
Not since 2012 has such a large area of Iowa been in extreme drought. That year it peaked at three-quarters of the state, according to U.S. Drought Monitor data.
