Posted on 07/01/2026 10:31:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
THIS IS INSANE! 130 MPH winds destroyed windmills in South Dakota this morning. This is very rare. We hardly ever see windmills take this much damage from straight-line damaging winds. But when you push over 110 MPH winds, it becomes a lot easier for the windmills to crumble. Photos via Storm Chaser Jakob McMillin
Accuweather describes set up that will make for severe storms all week long More reports of widespread damage from tornado-force straight line winds below.
Ag Week:
A devastating windstorm ripped through central South Dakota on the morning of June 29.
According to the South Dakota State University Mesonet, at 6:25 a.m. Monday, wind gusts were reported at 131 miles per hour, with the wind speed at 76 miles per hour. Rainfall totaled 1.64 inches.
Videos of the aftermath in Highmore show extensive damage to the community. Destroyed buildings and grain bins and standing water could be seen throughout a large section of the town following the storm.
Grain bins in Highmore, S. D.
(Excerpt) Read more at thinc.blog ...
A nuclear plant would have survived this. A coal plant .. . A hydroelectric dam . . .Overhead wires might have come down but that is cheaper to replace than these hugely expensive windmills.
Torches.
The 131 mph wind gust recorded in Highmore in Hyde County is the strongest straight-line thunderstorm gust recorded nationwide in 43 YEARS!
Wind mills knocked down! Anyway, about my bunions...🤔👍🇺🇸
Number of Windmills in South Dakota
As of July 2026, South Dakota has 25 operating utility‑scale wind farms with a combined capacity of about 3,457 megawatts (MW) www.cleanview.co. These are large commercial wind projects, not individual small‑scale turbines.
If you mean “how many windmills” in the literal sense — counting every single turbine — the number is much higher. For example, the Triple H Wind Project in Hyde County has 92 GE 2.72 MW turbines National Wind Watch, and other large farms have dozens more. Adding up all turbines across the 25 farms would give a total in the hundreds, but Cleanview’s project tracker does not publish a cumulative turbine count.
Key points:
25 wind farms are currently operating in South Dakota www.cleanview.co.
Total capacity: ~3,457 MW www.cleanview.co.
Largest projects include Dakota Range Wind (304 MW), Deuel Harvest Wind (300 MW), and Triple H Wind (250 MW) www.cleanview.co.
Recent severe storms have caused significant damage to some farms, such as the Triple H Wind Project near Highmore, where over 20 turbines were destroyed or critically damaged National Wind Watch.
So, while there are 25 wind farms, the actual number of individual windmills (turbines) is in the hundreds, depending on the size and number of turbines in each facility.
Sounds like Hurricane Elvis.
Energy is not the same as power.
Energy = Power x Time
I call them "our investors". They did it with EV's, super dooper batteries, solar panels, etc..., and are concentrating their efforts on AI and data centers currently. It's all an effort to pump their portfolios. They long it, then they short it, then they move on to the next shiny thing.
That’s what I said.
I misread, no quibbling was in order, and I agree with what you actually said, an informative comment and crisply put.
All we need is that picture of piece of straw embedded in a telephone pole during a hurricane to illustrate.
“All we need is that picture of piece of straw embedded in a telephone pole during a hurricane to illustrate.”
That’s a great picture.
Here in Iowa half of all of our electricity comes from wind turbines. Even at that percentage it isn’t very easy to find a wind farm.
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