Milking the Weather - December 2010 Edition
Using the BOM website
Bree Walshe, DPI Maffra
There are many handy tools on the BOM website, here are a few tips to help you navigate your way through.
Water and the Land (WATL)
http:/www.bom.gov.au/watl/index.shtml
WATL is designed specifically to be used by the Agricultural sector. The menu tab on the left hand side (below) highlights it’s key sections.
There are six key components to Water and the Land – Forecast Rainfall, Forecast Wind, Latest Radar and Satellite, Forecast Frost Potential, Warnings and the Notice Board. Handy hints for some of these components are:
Forecast Rainfall – this tool provides you with the ability to click on the map to zoom into your region and not only see the forecasted amount of rain, but also the ‘chance of rainfall’. There are also options to select a three month outlook, where you can select either ‘outlook scenario’ or ‘chance of at least’ options to help with your summer management.
Latest Radar and Satellite – a very useful tool to view coming showers or rain, as well as cloud cover.
Forecast Frost Potential – this tool is available in either a map or table format, allowing you to see what the minimum overnight temperatures are going to be, with differing colours to highlight the risk of a frost.
The Notice Board houses the BOM’s new section – Forecast Explorer. This is your one stop shop for daily or weekly temperature, rainfall and wind. It has a couple of different view options. You can click on your locality and it will bring you a weekly forecast – or you can select the loops and the map will show you a visual display of your local weather forecast.
The newest edition to the website is the Recent Evapotranspiration section, this is an interactive map or table (your choice) where you can find data from your nearest weather station.
Evapotranspiration can be used to help schedule irrigations, along with looking at historic evaporation to help determine suitable crop types for your district.
Historic Data including average rainfall, temperature and sunshine are also housed in the WATL section of the website.
Another useful component of the BOM website is the CLIMATE section http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/ home to all things climate and how seasonal outlooks and climate drivers form your weather forecasts.
Dairy Australia has produced a Cool Cows website http://www.coolcows.com.au, this site has useful tips on how to keep your cows cool over the summer months as well as what the benefits are to both milk production and profitability of such practices. There is a handy ‘weather forecaster’ that highlights at risk days for your cows using your local area’s weather information. At risk days are based on the Temperature Humidity Index (THI). It accounts for the combined effects of environmental temperature and relative humidity, and is a useful and easy way to assess the risk of heat stress.
