5-21-2024 Greenfield, IA-Wind turbines demolished, on fire, path of tornado.mp4

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Several wind turbines were crumpled and caught fire as a powerful tornado tore through several wind farms in Iowa, eventually hitting the town of Greenfield.

[@sp4604]

looks like sum bent fast food straws

[@Withnail1969]

So this is going to get quite expensive with fairly regular tornados in the Mid West.

[@mikecolella1460]

Lot of soil contamination

[@MsAmericat-f9l]

Yup. Like the lithium battery fires. Hard to put out and completely toxic gases. This is for investors, not the ‘environment.’😏

[@xploration1437]

@@MsAmericat-f9lwhat an ignorant comment.

[@johnscott5105]

Just the fact all the weight of these wind generators are on top makes them less likely to survive a significant wind event like a tornado. Some of them still standing may have damage as well. I would guess a solar panel farm wouldn't fare any better with a tornado.

[@huh4233]

The stand of trees sure didn't in the forest. Good environmental energy balance equation - number of wind turbines destroyed and equivalent carbon burned to replace these, PLUS carbon used to build original turbines and plant them in ground at tornado alley???

[@ljfinger]

They're designed for approximately 155mph straight line winds. Houses are closer to 90mph.

[@SunriseLAW]

My guess is that any power plant could be badly affected by a direct hit from a tornado.

[@ljfinger]

@@huh4233 Wind turbines produce around 20-50 times the energy needed to build them over their lifetimes.

[@huh4233]

@@ljfinger You're gonna have to cite that. That's a projection, no where near FACT. I's a feeling from a greeny to get a hard weeny. Wind may be third, buts that's only 8 percent. Don't have kids if you want to reduce world energy needs.

[@robertthomas1411]

Looks like Don Quixote has been there.

[@TallulahSoie]

What happens when a tornado hits a wind turbine? The same thing as everything else.

[@2345allthebest]

There's a video out there indicating these things are built to withstand 150mph winds... so we're looking at at least a high-end EF3 if that's accurate here.

[@Wiwa7]

Yes, last year there was an f2 tornado in germany, wich barely missed 2 Wind turbines, while they recorded wind speeds of up to 57m/s (128mph) without taking any significant damage.

[@Wiwa7]

But the Wind turbines shown aren’t looking to strong and the wind calculations only account for straight line winds.

[@davestagner]

This is from the same tornado that hit Greenfield and basically leveled a 500 foot wide swath of the town. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was EF4. Hardly a wall was left standing in its path.

[@meowmoooink4225]

Pecos Hank has a video of wind turbines taking a direct hit from a tornado with absolutely no damage. So either this tornado was very strong or the wind turbines were poorly designed.

[@2345allthebest]

@@meowmoooink4225 just out from the AP: The tornado that leveled Greenfield brought to life the worst case scenario in Iowa that weather forecasters had feared, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said.“Debris was lifted thousands of feet in the air and ended up falling to the ground several counties away from Greenfield. That’s evidence of just how intense and deadly this tornado was,” Porter said.The deadly tornado appeared to have been on the ground for more than 40 miles (64 kilometers , he said, and the damage wrought by it was the worst he had seen since an EF-4 tornado - with wind speeds between 166 and 200 mph (267 and 320 kph) - hit Mayfield, Kentucky in December 2021. A mobile research radar in the area of the Greenfield tornado detected wind speeds higher than 200 mph (320 kph), which is the threshold for an EF-5 tornado, Porter said.

[@davidcrumrine1165]

It will buff out

[@macmcellheney4351]

There will be more of this when meth heads find out there's copper inside.

[@cotysalisbury861]

That's right why not tell em copper is in em.

[@HiwasseeRiver]

Somewhere a natural gas power plant is picking up the load, just like it does every day.

[@walter1742]

Man thinks he can control the world but now they are starting to relalize God created and controls everything 🙏😆

[@MrSteamDragon]

Not a local, and may be a naive question, but why build wind turbines in a known tornado zone? Do they build more than they need and accept the risk? Or I am missing something?

[@greenmirror5555]

Taxation and tracking have mysterious ways!

[@kevinwaterman389]

The same reason people build houses and live in known Hurricane and Earthquake zones! They are great places to live until Mother Nature strikes and there is no place on earth that is 100% safe from her destructive power!

[@TSLApilot]

Because that’s where the wind is. More than half the USA is at risk of tornadoes. Anything built in a tornado zone is potential at risk. The overall risk to an individual is small.

[@davestagner]

Honestly, the risk isn’t all that big. Even this one only took out four turbines of the 55 on that particular wind farm. They’re spaced hundreds of feet apart.

[@jimhorn1041]

Or build solar farms in hail prone areas. It’s just stupid.

[@markm4120]

I thought those things liked wind?

[@HiramOliverslife]

Can you include videos showing the path of the tornado if it left one? Also provide best link to support your travel expenses on your video.

[@ChadSimplicio]

There are storm chaser videos showing its path through that wind farm. Go find it.

[@intheknow7659]

Worse things for the enviornment and birds. Go look up the piles of old ones, nearly impossible to recycle. Now all that fiberglass is scattered, little strands of it.

[@Jumper777-k3f]

That is one way of removing these worthless items of scam.

[@johnpatrick9552]

💯

[@xploration1437]

Scam?

[@KB-ke3fi]

@@xploration1437 SCAM

[@BrunnerFoundry]

​@@xploration1437A "scam" is best defined as a fraud, a dishonest scheme.

[@launderedcotton8070]

​Uses more energy to build and transport than it will ever be able to generate. Negative net energy gain, citizens relieved of money anyway, thats called a scam.

[@ЮрийСемёнов-у7н]

Наши соболезнования. Какой ущерб.

[@jjgson69]

Mother natures way of weeding out the stupid ideas....

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

Have you got a better idea to produce energy cheaply without polluting the environment?? There are thousands of wind turbines throughout the country producing energy without polluting.

[@jjgson69]

@@michaeldeierhoi4096 Remember the wind turbines freezing up in Texas a few years ago? Wind only produces energy about 30 percent of the time. Solar about 40. What are you going to use for the other time? Batteries don't work in cold weather. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Someday you will......

[@morrismonet3554]

@@michaeldeierhoi4096 How do you build a wind turbine without mining , refining, smelting, etc? All take tons of fossil fuel. It's a big scam.

[@xploration1437]

@@michaeldeierhoi4096that guy is ignorant.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

@@xploration1437 😂

[@justicetrufaux6722]

Call the EPA! 550 gals of oil in each of those

[@ljfinger]

Not even close.

[@justicetrufaux6722]

My bad… 700 gals

[@ljfinger]

@@justicetrufaux6722 More like 50-100. Gear oil.

[@Godzilla20191]

2100 gallons total

[@ljfinger]

@Godzilla20191 Where are you getting this false information? It's nowhere near that.

[@andik859]

Too much wind. 😂

[@p25h76l]

See, even Nature hates "green energy"

[@rodgercottrill3342]

So much for wind power down work

[@CanberraUser]

All that wasted "renewable energy"!!!

[@pliskenmovie]

Soda straw with a big weight on top. Wind turbines can't win that fight. Lovely all that burning fiberglass/carbon fiber and lubricating oil.

[@ljfinger]

They're designed for around 155mph of wind. Plus safety factor. Few buildings are designed for that much wind.

[@moldtechgustafson]

MOTHER NATURE IS PISSED OFF AT THIS GREEN ENERGY CRAP SHE SHOWS WHOS BOSS

[@fourierxfm]

Yeah, you sound like you have a 37 IQ.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

The crap is in your comment. Green energy is a thing and makes a big difference in producing zero toxic emissions. It's renewable energy after all. And they are very common in red states so even conservatives see the value in green energy!!

[@xploration1437]

@@michaeldeierhoi4096she’s just ignorant.

[@HiwasseeRiver]

@@michaeldeierhoi4096 Good grief you have now idea how toxic all the green tech is.

[@eustatic3832]

Too spinny fall down. Still so much better than when the hurricanes hit the refineries, I mean you call THAT a fire?

[@36terraplane57]

Welcome to our future.

[@ChadSimplicio]

Big Oil & Big Coal are doing happy dances after seeing what looked like a multi-vortex, high intensity tornado (from related storm chaser videos) do a number on that wind farm.

[@huh4233]

You bet they are. They're gonna need oil and coal to build more turbines! Everybody wins.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

😂😅. You kids don't have any concept of scale. A few wind turbines lost out of hundreds is a drop in the bucket. Coal companies will continue to lose market share to cheaper energy like natural gas and the renewables and oil's days are numbered if only because it is a finite supply!!

[@morrismonet3554]

@@michaeldeierhoi4096 I have been hearing that we are running out of oil since the '70s. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@KB-ke3fi]

You realize these things use oil and gas to manufacturem transport and also have to be oiled all the time, right? Never saw an oil pipeline get destroyed by a tornado, have you?

[@KB-ke3fi]

@@michaeldeierhoi4096 Only because the idiot in chief keeps closing them down like he did the pipeline

[@matthewgregory1269]

Good, they a blight on the landscape and total con.

[@ralphzaionz4029]

Green energy future havoc.

[@caydenruzicka]

if you go to 0:54 and 1:09 you can see stairs and that puts into perspective that this tornado destroyed towers of like 10in metal.

[@anb7408]

BUT, these aren’t listed on the “degrees of destruction” by the NWS for rating tornadoes, so it’ll get ignored and they’ll rate EF-3 or less. Just like the water tower in Rolling Fork that was guesstimated by structural engineers to need winds of 280mph to get knocked over and flattened. That got ignored too.

[@AccountInactive]

Not 10" solid. They're thick, but have a middle layer to them, kinda like cardboard does. Source: worked in wind logistics/transportation.

[@ljfinger]

@@AccountInactive No they don't. They're rolled steel plate in the 20-50mm thickness range, depending on location.

[@davidcrumrine1165]

Tell me you haven't a clue without telling me you haven't a clue. I use to build the base section of these towers and even the base isn't 10" thick let alone 3/4 the way up the stack. The ones we built the base flange was 6" thick and then the base section of the tower was 1.5" thick.

[@davidcrumrine1165]

What you are looking at in the videos at your time stamps are the flanges where the 2 stack sections bolt together.

[@shop970]

Matches Hollywood movie theater fun. So people should be happy. The reality of failures in our lives.

[@oregonpatriot1570]

That windmill burst into flames when it's destroyer was still in the neighborhood. Awesome day! ....unless you happen to be a windmill.

[@aclonecone]

… or live in greenfield

[@jeffburton2625]

God is laughing at the broken windmills. "That's cute guys, but how about no instead..?"

[@guyforlogos]

It missed some….

[@carllynn2150]

Wanna push the algorithm....👣

[@danlowe8684]

Likely designed failure points, I'm guessing. Like square tube parking lot poles that will fail much the same way a couple of inches from the welded bottom flange. They tip over but remain attached so as to not become projectiles.

[@jasonhester727]

Not really. It's built in sections, and most likely the wind pushed the blades into the tower, causing it to fold in on itself. Happens more often than you think that a blade is hit by lightning or enough wind forces it off balance, that it hits itself and falls over. I'm in the industry. Have seen the bolts that get snapped when one falls over, it's a bolt nearly an inch thick and clearly sheared off, that's a lot of force.

[@danlowe8684]

@@jasonhester727 Thank you!!

[@oregonpatriot1570]

Except they *_WERE_* projectiles! If you would have watched this live, you would have seen the blades and other pieces being sucked into the twister and falling hundreds of feet away. It looked like small white pieces from a distance, and you had to remind yourself of the actual size as you saw it. That 'small stuff' was 50 to 70 foot pieces of the windmill! Absolutely awesome sight!

[@binaryanticommunist1882]

⁠What are those towers made of?

[@oregonpatriot1570]

Steel: 66-79% of the total turbine mass is made of steel, which is used for the main structure, tower, and other components. Fiberglass, resin, or plastic: 11-16% of the turbine mass is made of fiberglass, resin, or plastic, which is used for the blades and other components. Iron or cast iron: 5-17% of the turbine mass is made of iron or cast iron, which is used for the main structure, tower, and other components.

[@alexanderrad3458]

This is what happens after a boss fight.

[@snoodlebug1800]

The NWS will still find a way to avoid classifying this as EF5 damage.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

Since an EF 5 designation is rare your comment is without merit!!!

[@kikaree]

Now the farmers have a big metal mess to clean up and corn is just coming up. I hate those big turbines.

[@drury2d8]

They get paid $$$$ to lease out the land.

[@Cindarr1]

They have a wayleave contract with the windfarm company for access to the land + a percentage of the yearly earnings (up to 20%) and they get compensated for any crop damage or inferference with agriculture. The farmer is rolling in cash because of this.

[@davestagner]

Yeah, coz the wind was bad enough to knock down those towers, but of course the corn is just fine, not damaged at all. Uh huh.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

​@@davestagnerThere are hundreds of acres if not thousands of acres in that farmland. Do you really think a farmer is going to worry about a few down wind turbines and some crop destroyed in that tiny area!?!?

[@ljfinger]

Ever seen an oil field?

[@maxinemcelroy8902]

Reliable, green new energy 😅😂 What an eye sore and a total FAILURE!!

[@MsAmericat-f9l]

I don’t those are even recyclable. Creates more garbage. Nothing green about wide use of them, & they hurt wildlife. So sad ppl buy the lies.🤑

[@Independent7274]

Reliable energy provides 24% of what us Americans use how can that be a failure? Or does your political news shows tell you it’s evil.

[@AccountInactive]

Now disposal will fall into the county or local municipality (as is the case when the lifespan of the parts is over too)

[@drury2d8]

Those are like 3 turbines lost out of 60!

[@krzysztofkantoch4130]

your education was a total failure 🤦

[@juanitaeelgrass5517]

More tax dollars down the drain...

[@ljfinger]

They're privately owned.

[@HiwasseeRiver]

@@ljfinger By guys that take govt subsides and can't reliably deliver power.

[@juanitaeelgrass5517]

@@ljfinger that doesn't mean they're not subsidized by tax dollars.

[@ljfinger]

@@juanitaeelgrass5517 Not as much as fossil fuels are.

[@juanitaeelgrass5517]

@@ljfinger ahhh... "whataboutism" enters the conversation.

[@yucel1342]

Stupity of green structure 😅

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

I don't see you offering an alternative!?

[@ljfinger]

@@michaeldeierhoi4096 Fukushima.

[@xploration1437]

You can’t even spell words correctly.

[@MilePost106]

So much for reliable electricity.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

There are thousands and thousands of wind turbines throughout the country. What's the loss of a few here and there??

[@xploration1437]

Ignorant comment

[@timolexsey341]

I feel sorry for the people living down wind the blades are filled with toxic material and so are the heads what do you think that black stuff is that you see leaking down the sides of them when they are standing and over 8 years old

[@ljfinger]

They're fiberglass, like many boats.

[@alanlaub4890]

Worked composite recovery before, the hazardous waste from the burnt blades is amazing.

[@ljfinger]

@@alanlaub4890 Perhaps when burnt, but "that black stuff leaking down the sides of them" is pitch bearing grease or oil. Has nothing to do with the composite.