About Coastal Weather Observations

Latest Coastal Weather Observations for each state or territory

Weather observations show what weather has occurred. The Latest Coastal Weather Observations pages for each state or territory include Automatic Weather Station observations and manual observations. Reporting schedules vary according to the type of station. Weather observations more than 75 minutes old are shown in italics and are coloured blue green. Stations are grouped by marine forecast zones.

Latest Coastal Weather Observations for each station.

Data from the previous 72 hours.
Each station name is linked to a corresponding Latest Coastal Weather Observations page, which includes data from the previous 72 hours for that station. These station pages can also be accessed using the clickable station maps for each state.

Clickable station maps

The station maps indicate the locations of observing stations and the corresponding coastal forecast zones. Click on the station names in the maps to access the corresponding Latest Coastal Weather Observations page, which includes data from the previous 72 hours for that station. Some station names have been abbreviated in the maps. Roll your mouse over the station name to see the full name displayed.

Observation terms and abbreviations

To save space on the screen, most observation table columns have abbreviated headings.

Example
Note:
The observations have not been quality controlled.
'-' indicates that no data is available at that time.

Heading		Meaning	Units
Station Name		Name used to identify the observation station within this product. Official Bureau names may vary, particularly when a number of different types of stations are closely located. Some 'coastal' stations are up to several kilometres inland.
Date/Time		Date and local time. Different stations report at different time intervals, ranging from every 10 minutes to twice daily. In any state coastal observations page, all locations including those outside of the state boundaries are reported in the respective state local time.	local time hh:mm 12 hour clock
Wind	Dir	Wind direction. Direction relitive to True North, from which the wind is blowing.	16 compass points
	Speed knots	Wind speed is a 10-minute average speed from the standard height of 10 metres.	knots
	Gust knots	Wind gust is measured over 3 seconds from the standard height of 10 metres.	knots
Highest Wind Gust	Dir	Wind gust direction at time of highest wind gust.	16 compass points
	Speed knots / time	Wind speed in knots at time of highest wind gust.	knots
Sea Height	m	Sea wave height observed. '+' indicates 'greater than', '<' indicates 'less than'.	metres
Swell	Height m	Sea wave height observed. '+' indicates 'greater than', '<' indicates 'less than'.	metres
	Periods	Period observed between the swells.	seconds
	Dir	Swell 'Dir' is the direction the swell comes from, relitive to True North. 'CF' indicates 'Confused Swell' 'NS' indicates 'No Swell'	8 compass points
Vis	Km	'Vis' is the visibility distance in whole kilometres, above 5 kilometres. Below 5 kilometres, visibility is in tenths of a kilometre down to 0.1(100meters). '0' indicates visibility less than 100 metres.	Kilometres
Cloud		Cloud cover is described, when data is available.
Weather		A précis description of the weather is provided when data is available.
Temp	°C	Ambient temperature.	degrees Celsius
Press	hPa	Atmospheric pressure reduced to mean sea level.	hectopascals
Rain since 9 am	mm	Precipitation (rainfall) since 9 am. Sometimes only known to the nearest whole millimetre. Rainfall that is less than 0.2mm, but greater than zero, is reported as 0.1mm. Rainfall amounts may be rounded to the nearest millimetre in the observations at 00.00, 03.00, 06.00, 09.00,12.00,15.00,18.00 and 21.00 local time.	millimetres

Coastal weather station site details

The 72 hour pages for each station include some basic station details to help identify the station. Some Bureau pages, including the 'Latest Coastal Weather Observations' use shorter, or more publicly recognisable names than the official station names. The 'Station Details', which include the Bureau of Meteorology station number, the official station name and location information, can be useful when you are comparing Bureau pages to ensure you are viewing the relevant station.
Example:

Station Details

ID: 76047

Name: OUYEN (POST OFFICE)

Lat: -35.06

Lon: 142.31

Height: 50.3 m

 

Further site information is available from the links below. The linked 'coastal weather station details' pages provide information about the station sites, to assist you to allow for differences in measured wind data and comparative conditions on the coast.

NSW | Vic. | Qld | WA | SA | Tas. | NT
When using wind data, it is important to remember most coastal stations are located on land so wind speeds may be unrepresentative of the actual wind conditions further out to sea. The reasons for this include:

• the decrease in wind speed over the land due to the generally rougher land surface.
• the effects of local topography, especially funnelling near and around headlands.
• the effects of inshore sea and land breezes.

Some stations are a good distance away from the coast but have been included as they provide some helpful information in areas where there are no other weather stations.

Marine observations program

The Bureau operates a number of marine observing networks.

Marine observations program

Observation data archives and station lists.

The Bureau's Climate section maintains observation data archives, station lists and details.
Climate data and further information | Weather Station directory

Observation data collection

Weather data are obtained from different types of observing stations around Australia, on offshore islands, and in the Antarctic. They include bureau staffed and cooperative observer stations, automatic weather stations, meteorological satellites and drifting ocean buoys, ships and aircraft that collect weather data.

At the majority of locations, Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) send data frequently. Some provide data every minute, while others report on an hourly basis. The AWSs are designed to provide data for the Bureau's forecasting, warning, and information services, as well as providing data for the Bureau's climate database.

At some locations Bureau observers supplement the temperature, humidity, pressure and wind observations with observations of cloud and other elements such as sea state. These are referred to as 'Visual Observations' in some products. These manual observations are reported less frequently. For most of the day, three hourly instrument readings are made of temperature, air pressure, humidity, rainfall, and wind speed and direction, and visual observations are made of cloud cover and visibility. In addition to the 'surface' observations, at some stations the temperature and humidity of the upper atmosphere are obtained by balloon-borne instruments to an altitude of 25 kilometres.

The Bureau also has a network of more than 400 part-time observers who provide further surface observations.

Observation data quality

Observations on the Latest Weather Observations web pages are updated from the Bureau of Meteorology's real-time database. These include data provided from portable automatic weather stations (PAWS) and from sites that are manually operated and update less frequently. Limited quality checks are performed. It is possible for incorrect values to appear. Please check the disclaimer before using these data.

With the exception of data from the portable category of sites, you may search for data that have been quality checked using our climate data online service. If you have questions about our products, or data requests, please contact us.

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