SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Wind farms in upstate New York are interfering with National Weather Service Doppler radars, making it more difficult to detect and assess approaching lake effect snow storms.

The spinning blades on the towering turbines can cause problems by reflecting some of the radar's signal, which can be falsely interpreted as wind or precipitation. The reflections can make storms coming off lakes Erie and Ontario look stronger than they actually are, but the structures can also act like a wall and hide a storm from forecasters.

"It's more of an annoyance than a critical issue," said Bill Hibbert, a meteorologist and radar specialist with the weather service in Buffalo. "But it's a growing problem, and there's not really anything that can be done about it right now."

In western states, where wind farms abound and destructive tornados are a concern, the interference has led to false tornado alerts.

Radar software can easily filter out buildings, cell towers, mountain ridges and other stationary objects on radar screens. But because weather radar seeks motion to warn of storms, there is no way to filter out the spinning blades.

The weather service is trying to develop better software to reduce the confusion between dangerous storms and wind farms, Hibbert said.

In the meantime, it is trying to educate developers and communities about the problem, Hibbert said. The service has created a Web page about Doppler radar interference.

The American Wind Energy Association, the industry trade group, is making sure its members understand the issue and that they consider their projects' potential effects, a spokeswoman said.

In western New York, interference comes from wind farms in Erie and Wyoming counties, which are located 20 to 35 miles from the radar station in Cheektowaga. The 195-turbine Maple Ridge Wind Farm is less than 10 miles from the radar in Montague, on the snowy Tug Hill Plateau in Lewis County. The Montague radar is also used by the weather service in Albany, Binghamton and Burlington Vt., Hibbert said.

Lake effect storms develop when arctic winds blow over warmer lake waters, essentially becoming a natural snowmaking machine. The area around Montague on Lake Ontario's eastern shore gets more than 33 feet of snow annually.

Weather service forecasters recognize the problem and are watchful when looking at areas with wind farms, but those same radar images are also conveyed on television and on the Internet, where misinterpretation is more likely, Hibbert said.