Wind gust statistics and turbulence studies during storms at a wind generator site in Central Otago, New Zealand

Wind gust data and turbulence statistics were collected during storms which passed over the Rocklands Atmospheric Tower (Dawber, 1990) located near the Old Dunstan Road in the Lammermoor Range area of Central Otago, and transmitted via a UHF data link to a computer in the Physics Department Laboratories some 50 km away. Wind gust profiles at 10 m and 30 m elevations, wind shear statistics on a 0.2 s basis, the statistical distributions of the gusts of various magnitudes during storms, the 10 minute mean wind speed distributions and the turbulent intensities were evaluated and analysed.