Climate service announcements

  • Climate summaries

    Change date: April 2023

    From April 2023 climate summaries have a new streamlined format.

    URL: All summaries

  • Drought analyser

    Change date: October 2022

    The Drought analyser service used for the Australian Government Farm Management Deposits Scheme has moved to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

    URL: Former Bureau Drought analyser service

  • Climate outlooks

    Change date: June 2022

    From 23 June the Climate Outlooks will add maps showing the Chance of particular 3-day rainfall accumulations and more details for selected locations.

    URL: Climate outlooks

  • Weekly Rainfall Update

    Change date: March 2022

    From March, the Weekly Rainfall Update will be published each Monday. Content changes include brief weekly highlights and a monthly summary. Rainfall totals maps and filterable tables replace the regional highest totals list.
    Deficiency maps are available from Rainfall maps for standard periods, and from the Drought page when deficiency periods apply.

    URL: Weekly Rainfall Update

  • Climate Outlooks model update

    Change date: October 2021

    From 21 October 2021, the Bureau's Climate Outlooks, including sea surface temperature outlooks and climate driver outlooks will be upgraded to be based on the latest version of the Bureau's ACCESS-S model.

    On 28 October the climate outlooks service will be expanded to include extreme rainfall and temperature outlooks.

    URL: Climate outlooks

  • Weekly Tropical Climate Note

    Change date: May 2021

    The Weekly Tropical Climate Note, renamed the Tropical Climate Update, is now published fortnightly.

    URL: Tropical Climate Update

  • Browser FTP support is ending

    Change date: March 2021

    Some of our data and files are accessed by FTP. Web browser FTP support will soon end, so you will need to use an application with FTP support. A web search will list free and commercial FTP applications.

  • Monthly SOI page address changes

    Change date: December 2020

    Old SOI monthly data, charts and tables page URLs will be removed. The monthly SOI remains available from the URL below.

    URL: Monthly SOI

  • Monthly gridded rainfall data and maps

    Change date: September 1 2020

    Monthly gridded rainfall data, used for climate recent and historical maps, will use the new dataset: Australian Gridded Climate Data. The current (AWAP) monthly rainfall dataset will continue to be available for some months.

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  • Climate RSS feed

    Change date: December 2019

    Our old Climate RSS feed will soon be decommissioned. A climate calendar file and email subscription provide some key publication dates and email alerts.

    URL: Climate RSS feed

  • Vegetation greenness (NDVI)

    Change date: Early 2019

    From March 2019, and possibly earlier, NDVI data have shown lower values in southern Australia due to a drift in the source NOAA satellite. The issue is being investigated and we expect corrections to be made in the coming two months. In the interim, please note the data have a low (brown) bias and should be used with caution.
    See the About the map for further details.
    Alternative services: Soil Moisture maps and data.

    URL: Vegetation greenness (NDVI)

  • Climate Outlooks, extra outlook periods and more frequent updates

    Scheduled release date: 29 August 2019

    Rainfall and temperature outlooks will include additional outlook periods. Outlooks will be available for weeks, fortnights, months and three-months ahead. Temperature outlooks will include difference from average (anomaly) maps. One and two-week outlooks will be updated Mondays and Thursdays, while one and three month periods will be updated weekly on Thursday.

    URL: Climate Outlooks

  • Northern Rainfall Onset, region outlooks, outlook schedule

    Scheduled release date: 1 August 2019

    After the 2018–19 season, northern rainfall onset outlooks for the Ord River, Darwin-Daly, Cape York, Mt Isa, and Bowen regions will no longer be produced. The first season outlook date will be 1 August 2019.

    URL: Northern Rainfall Onset

  • Climate Outlooks

    Scheduled release date: 14–16 August 2018

    From 16 August 2018, the Bureau's Climate Outlooks, including the sea surface temperature outlooks (updated 14 August), will be based on the Bureau's new ACCESS-S model. Outlook archive pages will include format and URL changes.
    For Outlook grids contact climatedata@bom.gov.au

    URL: Climate Outlooks | Model summary | Sea surface temperature outlooks

  • Northern Rainfall Onset, rainfall observation maps

    Scheduled release date: 3 October 2017

    After 3 October 2017, rainfall observation maps will be included in the Northern Rainfall Onset page. The rainfall maps will show total rainfall since 1 September, the date when the total reaches the 50 mm onset threshold, and the number of days earlier or later than the median onset date.

    URL: Northern Rainfall Onset

  • Climate Outlooks schedule

    Scheduled release date: 17 August 2017

    From 17 August 2017, the Climate Outlooks will be issued twice-monthly. An 'early look' at the month and season ahead will be issued mid-month, with the usual end-of-month issue continuing as usual.

    URL: Climate Outlooks

  • Changes to manual observations

    Scheduled release date: 28 April 2016

    From 28 April 2016, some manual weather observations will be superseded by newer technologies and will cease or have reduced reporting schedules.

    Further details

  • ENSO Wrap-Up page format and image URL changes

    Scheduled release date: 12 April 2016

    The ENSO Wrap-Up page format including the image URLS will be updated on 12 April.

    URL: ENSO Wrap-Up

  • ENSO Outlook web address, data and page format changes

    Scheduled release date: 12 April 2016

    The web addresses, page and data formats for the ENSO status alert will be changing.

    Old URLS: ENSO Outlook , Fortnightly data , Monthly data , Annual data

  • Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) graphs, tables and data updates

    Scheduled release date: 1 December 2015

    The format, web address and data processing for the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) graphs and tables will be changing. The old web addresses will be discontinued after January 2016. The SOI and associated Darwin and Tahiti MSLP data formats and URLs will not change. Data processing has been automated.

    The new web address is: www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/soi/

    Old URLs: SOI tables, SOI graphs, Data: SOI, Darwin MSLP, Tahiti MSLP

  • Climate Model Summary web address change

    Scheduled release date: 16 November 2015

    The web address of the Model Summary will be changing to www.bom.gov.au/model-summary. The old web address will be discontinued. Please update your bookmarks and links.

    Minor formatting and content changes will include additional Bureau climate model (POAMA) information.

  • Weekly Tropical Climate Note web address change

    Scheduled release date: 15 September 2015

    The web address of the Weekly Tropical Climate Note will be changing to www.bom.gov.au/tropical-note. The old web address will be discontinued. Please update your bookmarks and links.

  • Changes to the Cooperative Observer Network

    Scheduled update: 1 August 2015

    From 1 August 2015 a number of manual observation sites will record a single, daily observation and will no longer have 3 pm observations. The majority of sites are unaffected by this change.

    The Bureau's observations network includes a broad range of meteorological observations equipment to meet the needs of its forecasting and severe weather warning services, and provides data for the National Climate Record.

    The Bureau continually assesses its network of meteorological observations to ensure the most effective and cost efficient network is in operation. As the availability of automated observations has increased, the number of manual observations has decreased.

    In some cases data from nearby Automatic Weather Stations may be accessed on the Bureau's website as an alternative.

  • Northern Rainfall Onset outlook

    Scheduled release date: 25 June 2015

    The Northern Rainfall Onset outlook is a seasonal outlook service for tropical Australia. It includes maps, graphs and a description of the chance of the northern rainfall onset being earlier or later than average across the region.
    The Northern Rainfall Onset outlook will be linked from the Climate homepage, and Climate outlooks

  • Weekly Rainfall Update web address change

    Scheduled release date: 31 March 2015

    The web address and format of the Weekly Rainfall Update will be changing. Content will remain consistent, however links to old state rainfall tables will be replaced.
    The Weekly Rainfall Update is linked from the Climate homepage, Rainfall deficiencies, Reports and summaries and the climate RSS feed.

  • Seasonal climate outlook update

    Scheduled release date: 22 May 2013

    The Bureau of Meteorology is updating the model it uses for the monthly Seasonal climate outlook

    The 3-month outlooks will be based on a dynamical model, which uses the physics of the atmosphere, oceans, land and ice interactions to calculate the probability of above (or below) normal rainfall and temperature. Previously, outlooks were based on a statistical model, which uses history as a guide to the next season's rainfall and temperature.

  • Climate change and variability update

    Scheduled release date: 30 April 2013

    The updated Climate change and variability page integrates related information and adds a 'Climate updates' feature section.

    ACORN-SAT data has replaced the previous temperature dataset in Australian trend map and timeseries applications.

  • Climate model summary update

    Scheduled release date: 18 February 2013

    An updated and enhanced Model summary page has replaced Model outlooks of ENSO conditions.
    Please update your bookmarks and links.
    The Model summary page has added graphs, Indian Ocean Dipole and more model background information.

  • New one minute solar data service

    Scheduled release date: 29 August 2012

    One minute solar data
    A new service has been externally funded to provide web access to one minute resolution solar data from the Bureau's ground solar network. All available data are online, accessed one station-month at a time. Data are free but an automated registered user approach has been implemented to assist service management.

    A companion product (IDCJAD0114) is also available (at cost recovery charges) which provides all one minute solar data and associated one minute AWS weather data (when available) on a USB drive.

  • Weather station directory update

    Scheduled release date: 13 August 2012

    The updated Weather station directory is now dynamic, enabling searches for climate data stations based around a town, geographic location, or Bureau station number. Half hourly and one minute data are now included. The resultant station list can be included in a form to request data from Climate data services. Links are provided to data freely available online.

  • New Australian Climate Observations Reference Network – Surface Air Temperature (ACORN-SAT) dataset

    Scheduled release date: 23 March 2012

    The Australian Climate Observations Reference Network – Surface Air Temperature (ACORN-SAT) dataset has been developed for monitoring climate variability and change in Australia.
    The ACORN-SAT page includes dataset background information and links to the station catalogue and data.

  • Maps - recent conditions update

    Scheduled release date: 7 December 2011

    Maps - recent conditions page has a new web address: www.bom.gov.au/climate/maps/
    Please update your bookmarks and links.
    Preview images of each of the maps have been added to the page.

  • Monthly rainfall data quality control changes

    Scheduled release date: 11 October 2011

    Climate Data Online monthly rainfall information is being updated. A recent data review has resulted in changes to the classification of quality controlled monthly-total rainfall data. Around 500,000 records (5.5% of total records) will have their status changed to ‘not quality controlled’. The total precipitation value should remain unchanged. These records are pre-2000, with greater than half pre-1950. Their status was down-graded because they lacked historical detail.

    During the review process a small quantity of daily rainfall data were recovered enabling updating and additional monthly totals to be calculated.

    Example monthly rainfall page

  • New data services portal

    Scheduled release date: 5 September 2011

    The new Data services portal introduces integrated data services information and tools to help streamline custom data requests and enquiries.

  • Daily rainfall, temperature, solar exposure: all years of data available in one file

    Scheduled release date: 28 April2011

    From Climate data online, all years of daily rainfall, temperature and solar exposure data can now be downloaded in a single file, for each weather station. This history file is linked as 'All years of data' in the top right corner of the data table and graph pages.

    Example daily rainfall page

  • Solar exposure data: daily and monthly station data now available from Climate data online

    Scheduled release date: 14 December 2010

    From Climate data online, daily and monthly solar exposure tables, graphs and data are now available.
    You can use solar exposure data to estimate the amount of solar energy available.

    Example solar exposure page

  • New climate and weather extremes service

    Scheduled release date: 7 December 2010

    Australian climate and weather extremes provides information about extremes of temperature and rainfall. The highest and lowest maximum and minimum temperatures and highest daily rainfall are presented as tables, graphs and maps for each state, the Northern Territory and Australia.

    About climate and weather extremes

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Page updated: Monday 29 April 2013 16:51:26 PM EST

Climate