Issued: 11am AEDT, Wednesday 30 November, 2022
Images from the newly upgraded weather radar in Western Australia are now live on the Bureau of Meteorology’s website and the BOM Weather app.
Hazard Preparedness Manager North and West, Todd Smith said the improved data will assist the community to track rain, wind, storms and severe weather with increased confidence.
“Dual-polarised Doppler radars are a tool for observing rainfall and wind conditions in real time across large areas. They show Australians what’s happening right now and provide data as part of the Bureau’s observation network,” Mr Smith said.
“The radar data is also fed into our models and forecasts to deliver rainfall and severe weather warnings, hail location and strength of wind information.”
“This enables businesses to make better decisions when preparing for severe weather, helps farmers make timely decisions, such as movement of stock, chemical and fertiliser application, sowing and harvesting.”
“Emergency services will also benefit from better fire plume height estimation and detection of fire-generated thunderstorms,” Mr Smith said.
The Serpentine weather station is one part of a comprehensive weather observation network of more than 11,000 assets including satellites, upper atmosphere monitoring, automatic weather stations, ocean buoys and flood warning networks.
This weather radar replacement is part of the Bureau of Meteorology’s ongoing work to enhance and improve the Australian radar and observation network.
