wind shadow

noun

An area which experiences lower winds due to being downwind from an obstacle such as a hill, building, tree line, mountain, wind turbine, etc.

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Meanings

nounwind shadow (countable and uncountable, plural wind shadows)

plural wind shadows

  1. countableclimatologyAn area which experiences lower winds due to being downwind from an obstacle such as a hill, building, tree line, mountain, wind turbine, etc.
  2. uncountableclimatologyThe phenomenon of lesser wind for this reason.

    "If you measure behind a wind turbine, the wind is blowing less hard," say Remco Verzijlbergh from Dutch weather service Whiffle. Geography means that this phenomenon, known as wind shadow, benefits Belgian wind farms in the North Sea.

    2025 June 7, The Australian Weekend Magazine, Australia, page 31, column 3
Cite this entry
APA

wind shadow. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wind%20shadow

MLA

“wind shadow.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wind%20shadow. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wind shadow,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wind%20shadow.

Source: wind shadow on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.