The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 65- Quirindi (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station: Quirindi 55049

Opened: 1882

Daily Temperature data from: 1965

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at:  Scone, Inverell.

Location: Co-ordinates   -31.5086 150.6793

About 275km north-north-west of Sydney.

BOM site plan 2018:

2019 Google satellite image:

Google street view 2010:

Concrete driveways, bitumen carparks, wooden fences, metal fences, surrounded by large brick buildings only a few metres away.

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations and used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL

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The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 64- Mungindi (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station:  Mungindi 52020

Opened: 1887

Daily Temperature data from: 1965

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at:  Moree, Walgett.

Location: Co-ordinates   -28.9786 148.9899

On the Queensland- New South Wales border, about 590km north-west of Sydney, and 430km south-west of Brisbane.

BOM site plan 2016:

 

2019 Google satellite image:

Google street view 2008:

Tucked in behind a hedge ( 3 to 4 metres) and a 1.8m paling fence, and close to sheds and buildings, what hope does this station have of reporting reliable temperatures?

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations and used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL

The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 63- Barraba (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Remember Streaky Bay?  Here’s another station caught in the act of moving.

Station:  Barraba 54003

Opened: 1881

Daily Temperature data from: 1966

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at:  Inverell

Location: Co-ordinates   -30.3833 150.6083

About 400km north-west of Sydney.

BOM site plan 2019:

2019 Google satellite image:

But the screen doesn’t appear in that photo- where is it?

600 metres up Clifton Lane to the north:

Sometime before May 2019 (but after July 2018) the station was moved to a more open site.  Here’s the old site plan:

Google street view 2010:

Oh dear, what a poor, neglected weather station, littered with old cable reels and other unwanted rubbish, close to buildings and a laneway, surrounded by long grass, beside a wooden paling fence and near a gravel driveway. At last the Bureau has got around to moving it.

This station was not compliant, but temperatures were reported at Latest Weather Observations and used to adjust data at Acorn sites.  It is in a better position now, but still beside a dirt road.

FAIL

The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 62- Thredbo Village (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station:  Thredbo Village 71041

Opened: 1969

Daily Temperature data from: 1969

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at:  —

Location: Co-ordinates  -36.5031 148.3038

About 390km south-west of Sydney and 330km north-east of Melbourne.

2019 Google satellite image:

BOM site plan 2019:

Google street view 2017 (Photo Alan Yong):

Very close to a metal shed, very close to snowmobile parking, close to chairlift machinery.

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations but not used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL

The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 61- Burrinjuck Dam (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station:  Burrinjuck Dam 73007

Opened: 1908

Daily Temperature data from: 1965

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at: Cabramurra, Canberra.

Location: Co-ordinates  -34.9997 148.5984

About 270km south-west of Sydney.

2019 Google satellite image:

BOM site plan 2016:

2019 Google 3D satellite image:

From BOM’s specifications:  “The site should not be in a hollow or on a steep slope. “

While the station is on a level bit of ground about 16 metres wide, the site sits on a steep slope- so steep that the steps are steep.

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations and used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL

The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 60- Bombala AWS (NSW)

Time for some comic relief.  Only in Australia!

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station:  Bombala AWS 70328

Opened: 1988

Daily Temperature data from: 1990

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at: —

Location: Co-ordinates  -37.0016 149.2336

About 370km south of Sydney, and about 6km from Bombala.

2019 Google satellite image:

Looks perfect?  Looks can be deceiving.

BOM site plan 2014:

Far from having vegetation trimmed to a few centimetres, the screen is surrounded by grass up to half a metre high.  The tipping bucket rain gauge and screen are often both mounted on a metal arm.  Cattle rubbing on the arm and/or screen will cause vibration at the least, not to mention heat from bovine body temperature and possible fresh manure and urine.

So we have a problem.  There are many stations not in an enclosure, and in many of them livestock graze nearby.  This is the first I have seen where the annual inspection reveals cattle rubbing on the apparatus.  That was in 2014.  I wonder if anything has been done about it?  As they have evidently recognised the Buffalo Fly problem, and a fence is out of the question, perhaps the Bureau has added an insecticidal back rubber to the bar?  Or recommended introduction of Brahman bloodlines?

Shh!  The Bureau would not want word getting out, people might laugh at them.

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations but not used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL

The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 59- Bombala (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station:  Bombala 70005

Opened: 1885

Daily Temperature data from: 1965

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at: —

Location: Co-ordinates   -36.9113  149.2379

About 360km south of Sydney.

BOM site plan 2017:

2019 Google satellite image:

2008 Google street view:

The screen is surrounded by a two metre wooden fence with a bitumen carpark just metres away (past the fence), and close to buildings and trees.

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations but not used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL

The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 58- Springwood (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station:  Springwood 63077

Opened: 1883

Daily Temperature data from: 2006

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at: —

Location: Co-ordinates   -33.7065 150.5848

About 60km west of Sydney.

BOM site plan 2017:

2019 Google satellite image:

2015 Google street view:

The screen is very close to bitumen on three sides, close to a wide (four track) railway corridor and a four lane highway to the east, on a slope, with trees nearby.

And it was moved here from a supposedly poorer site between September 2006 and November 2007:

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations but not used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL

The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 57- Gulgong (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station:  Gulgong 62013

Opened: 1881

Daily Temperature data from: 1970

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at: Bathurst, Dubbo, Scone.

Location: Co-ordinates   -32.3634 149.5329

About 240km north-west of Sydney.

BOM site plan 2012:

2019 Google satellite image:

2008 Google street view:

The screen is centred in a bare back yard, but is surrounded by large brick buildings and a 2 metre wooden paling fence.  It is not possible to tell from the satellite image whether the yard is lawn or bitumen, but it doesn’t look green.

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations and  used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL

The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 56- Ulladulla (NSW)

Please refer back to my first post for site specifications.

Station:  Ulladulla 69138

Opened: 1989

Daily Temperature data from: 1990

Data used to adjust Acorn sites at: —

Location: Co-ordinates   -35.3635 150.4828

About 170 km south of Sydney.

BOM site plan 2017:

Note “patchy grass to 0.5m”.  In 2016 it was “dead grass”.  The two metre wide concrete path was constructed after February 2016.  Before 2002 when they were removed, the trees and shrubs extended all the way in front of the enclosure:

BOM site plan 2000:

2019 Google satellite image:

Note the irrigated sports field, and the darker area of the enclosure indicating it has probably been sprayed out.

2010 Google street view:

Street view close up:

The area has been sprayed out to kill the grass, compared with the green grass outside.  Also note the proximity to the metal equipment shelters.

The screen is close to trees and shrubs, a concrete path (built in 2016) and a carpark.  The grass around the screen has been sprayed out in previous years and was up to 0.5 metres in 2017.  The site changed in 2002 when dense shrubs were removed from alongside the southern edge of the enclosure.  Over the years the thick scrub and trees on the southern side of the road have grown from “1-3m” to five metres high, and 15 metres to the west of the enclosure from six metres to 10 metres.

This station is not compliant, with temperatures reported at Latest Weather Observations but not used to adjust data at Acorn sites.

FAIL