Analysis of measurements on atmospheric turbulence with respect to the statistics of velocity increments reveals that the statistics are not Gaussian but highly intermittent. Here, we demonstrate that the higher quantity of extreme events in atmospheric wind fi elds transfers to alternating loads on the airfoil and on the main shaft in the form of torque fl uctuations. For this purpose, alternating loads are discussed with respect to their increment statistics. Our conjecture is that the anomalous wind statistics are responsible for load changes, which may potentially contribute to additional loads and may cause additional fatigue. Our analysis is performed on three different wind fi eld data sets: measured fi elds, data generated by a standard wind fi eld model and data generated by an alternative model based on continuous time random walks, which grasps the intermittent structure of atmospheric turbulence in a better way. Our fi ndings suggest that fl uctuations in the loads might not be refl ected properly by the standard wind fi eld models.