Department of Agriculture Service Unit
Climate Impacts and Weather Information
Weather Information on the Internet
There are three sites which contain most of the interesting Australian weather and climate data.
A wide range of information is located in these sites, and they are well worth a visit.
A selection of some of the more commonly used information is listed below:
HINT: You may want to include the sites you use regularly as bookmarks on your browser.
Rainfall charts for Australia are updated after @12.30pm each day.
These include:
Rainfall totals and deciles for 6, 9 and 12 months are also available, along with the
rainfall total for the month to date.
Archival files for rainfall charts for past rainfall periods may also be found at this site.
The Seasonal Climate Outlook for the next 3 months can also be found here.
(This site will be ultimately be merged into the Web site)
West Australian observations (as
text) are updated after @10:30am each day.
These include:
| daily | and |
weekly |
rainfall observations for Southern WA and |
| daily | and |
weekly |
rainfall observations for Northern WA |
Other useful information that can be found on this site includes:
Latest colour enhanced satellite image
(The time at the bottom of the image is GMT ie add 8 hours for WA time).
Synoptic charts:
Latest synoptic chart
24 hour synoptic prognosis
This site tends to concentrate on analyses relating to the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and sea surface temperature (SST) influences on eastern Australian rainfall. There are tables of historical and current SOI values, as well as rainfall maps of recent and current rain. Much of this information is of lesser relevance to Western Australia because we are not strongly affected by the SOI. However, maps of SST anomalies (ie how warm or cold the ocean is) are of interest for WA seasonal rainfall.
One area that might be of interest to West Australians is the Future Rainfall Probability maps. These maps show the probability of exceeding median rainfall in the coming 3 months, and are based on work by Dr Roger Stone, relating SOI phases to future rainfall.
Other sites of interest include:
The Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre (BMRC). This site allows you to keep abreast of the latest development in meteorology and forecasting in Australia.
The AGNET weather page. The AGNET site contains a comprehensive list of Australian agriculture related web sites. On the weather page you will find many links to Australian and International sites relating to weather and climate.
The Western Power weather station. East Perth's real time climate.