Climate service announcements
This page lists pending and previous changes to climate services.
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Climate Driver Update
Change date: December 2024
From December 2024 we are improving some of the climate services on our website. The Bureau will no longer:
- issue the fortnightly Climate Driver Update
- publish Climate Model Summaries
- issue El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Outlook Watch and Alert statements using the ENSO dial.
We will continue to report on conditions in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and high southern latitudes on our new Southern hemisphere monitoring and outlook pages.
Climate Driver Update will become 'Southern hemisphere monitoring'. Outlooks including sea surface temperatures and related indices are available from Sea surface temperature outlooks, which will be renamed 'Southern hemisphere outlooks'. Tropical outlooks are available in Tropical monitoring and outlooks.
URLs: Climate Driver Update, Climate Model Summary, ENSO Outlook, Sea surface temperature outlooks, Tropical monitoring and outlooks
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Sea Surface Temperature analysis data and climatology
Change date: 9 July 2024
After 9 July, climate services will use the Bureau's long-established Global Australian Multi-Sensor SST Analysis (GAMSSA) system data and revised climatology
URLs: SST analysis maps, Climate Driver Update, Climate indice charts
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Climate Model Summary and ENSO Outlook
Change date: June 2023
During June 2023, the Climate Model Summary and ENSO Outlook will introduce a streamlined format. Text details will move to the Climate Driver Update, where respective graphics are already displayed. The Climate Driver Update provides integrated context for most of our climate driver information.
The Climate Model Summary page will continue to display the latest charts, download links, details about the models and a link to the archive.
The ENSO Outlook will continue to provide details about the ENSO Outlook status criteria, as well as ENSO Outlook status history and links to archives and downloads.URLs: Climate Model Summary, ENSO Outlook, Climate Driver Update
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Climate summaries
Change date: April 2023
From April 2023 climate summaries have a new streamlined format.
URL: All summaries
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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.
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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
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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. -
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
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Weekly Tropical Climate Note
Change date: May 2021
The Weekly Tropical Climate Note, renamed the Tropical Climate Update, is now published fortnightly.
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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.
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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
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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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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. -
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
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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.
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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.
URL: Climate Outlooks | Model summary | Sea surface temperature outlooks
