For wind energy, most resource estimates have been made using wind data collected after 1976. This is a period of lower storm activity and lower winter winds. These shifts also appear to affect streamflow and the fraction of streamflow available between April through July. Relationships between variables representing energy demand and the availability of resources were investigated. This suggests that each year can be considered independent.
Some correlation exists from one season to the next, especially for temperature.
This indicated that temperature during any particular season is partly associated with the temperature that occurred during the previous season. Streamflow during the warm season is also partly associated with the streamflow during the previous cool season. One river, the Salmon River in Idaho showed some unique and high correlations for all seasons. Second, correlations were computed for cool season streamflow and other quantities over time to assess the contribution of each quantity. Limited association between the cool season streamflow and temperature was found with only a few streams showing significant correlations.