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BOM's last outback Queensland weather bureau closes

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Onetahuti
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BOM's last outback Queensland weather bureau closes

Post by Onetahuti »

BOM's last outback Queensland weather bureau closes as automation replaces staff

The last weather station in country Queensland will today be automated, signalling an end to weather forecasting in the bush.

Longreach's Bureau of Meteorology has joined the long list of destaffed weather stations as part of a larger restructure to upgrade technology across Australia.

Charleville, Emerald, and Weipa are also without regular staff.

"It means that the last inland station for most of New South Wales, and for all of Queensland [have lost their staff], so the last stations that have people in them will only be on the coast from then on," Longreach office manager Maria Fisher said

A long history

The Longreach bureau has been collecting rainfall data for more than 100 years, so Ms Fisher admitted that automation was a change she expected.

"We've been collecting rainfall data from near the post office in Longreach township since the early 1900s," she said.

"In 1949, we actually put this office here, so that we could use this site as a climate fix-point site."

"The in the late 70s, we started upgrading with the introduction of computers, and in the 80s we brought in the personal computers and started introducing the automated weather station," Ms Fisher said.

"That started this automation process, and it's taken us to 2017 to finalise the automation process."

Despite the removal of people, Ms Fisher said the changes would not impact on forecasting or reporting.

"There will be more data coming out of Longreach and forecasters will be able to do more real-time forecasting should there be a severe weather event here," she said.

Ms Fisher said the automation process relied on the installation of a 'profiler'.

"We've introduced a profiler, which is a new piece of instrumentation — it is effectively a radar lying flat on its back, pointing at the sky 24/7."

"It can give us a picture of the sky directly above it, every 10 minutes, over 24/7 — so all the time."


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Re: BOM's last outback Queensland weather bureau closes

Post by JasmineStorm »

Interesting story Onetahuti. It's going to fascinating to see how technology will change weather forecasting and observing in the next 20 years.
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