Gippsland - How Now Gippy Now - June 2010 Edition
And, now for the seven day farming forecast
Have you wondered if the wind is going to change and whether or not to spray a paddock? Or if it is going to rain and whether to hold off on cutting a paddock for hay or silage? To help with such decisions the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has recently introduced a new page on its website called Forecast Explorer.
The new page at www.bom.gov.au/forecasts/graphical/ provides a detailed seven day forecast with easy to use clickable maps down to a district level.
The resolution goes down to 6 km x 6 km grids and the information has a high degree of quality control which is updated two times per day. The page also provides a short on-line training session that shows the range of information available on the web-pages and how to easily access it in a variety of formats.
Forecast Explorer provides a seven day weather forecast to be obtained for your 6 km patch, showing you weather information where you need it. Rainfall, temperature (minimum and maximum), fog, frost and wind speed can be stepped out for the next three days in three hour time blocks, with six hour time steps for up to seven days. Overall, Forecast Explorer provides good accuracy to seven days.
The BOM also provides information on the longer-term outlook on www.bom.gov.au/climate/ where you can follow the links to longer term seasonal outlooks and rainfall. These forecasts also provide the latest information on the Southern Oscillation Index and Indian Ocean Dipole.
These links on the BOM website can help you make better informed short term decisions over the next few days, as well as set longer term strategic direction to position your farm business to take advantage of future opportunities.
A new newsletter called Milking the Weather also provides seasonal and climate risk information for the dairy industry.
To stay up to date with the most recent seasonal outlook and climate information register for a free email subscription by emailing zita.ritchie@dpi.vic.gov.au or calling 5624 2222.
