A dynamic model for the wind flow in wind farms is developed in this paper. The model is based on the spatial discretization of the linearized Navier-Stokes equation combined with the vortex cylinder theory. The spatial discretization of the model is performed using the finite difference method, which provides the state-space form of the dynamic wind farm model. The model provides an approximation of the behavior of the flow in the wind farm and obtains the wind speed in the vicinity of each wind turbine. Afterwards, the model is validated using measurement data of Energy research Center of the Netherlands' Wind turbine Test site in Wieringermeer in the Netherlands and by employing the outcomes of two other wind flow models. The end goal of this work is to present the wind farm flow model by ordinary differential equations, to be applied in wind farm control algorithms along with load and power optimizations. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.