Precis forecast products
The Bureau of Meteorology has a number of real-time forecast and observation products that can be used for ingestion by computers. These products are made available on the Bureau ftp site ftp://ftp2.bom.gov.au/anon/gen/fwo/. Each file has a date-time stamp indicating when the data file was created. A directory of the product catalogue is also available. Please read the User information section before using this product.
User information
- The Bureau does not guarantee the availability of information on the ftp site.
- Please read how to access the Bureau's ftp site and its structure.
- The Service Announcements page details changes to Bureau services.
- Use of data should be in accordance with the copyright notice and disclaimer.
Secondary distribution of Bureau of Meteorology information currently freely available on the Bureau's website and ftp site requires formal permission. Correct attribution of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as the source of Bureau information is an important component of any secondary distribution permission that may be granted. Where Bureau information is to be used on a website, permission for use of that information should be applied for by the website owner.
Product listing
There are eight Australia-specific Precis (In-brief) forecast products - one National product and one for each State or Territory. The national product is a composite of the State and Territory products. These files are updated whenever new forecast data is available.
| National | IDA00001 | text | html | |
| NSW | IDA00002 | text | html | XML (schema) Icon codes |
| Vic | IDA00003 | text | html | XML (schema) Icon codes |
| QLD | IDA00004 | text | html | |
| SA | IDA00005 | text | html | XML (schema) Icon codes |
| WA | IDA00006 | text | html | |
| Tas | IDA00007 | text | html | XML (schema) Icon codes |
| NT | IDA00008 | text | html |
Description of the data fields in the text file
The first row describes the fields while all other rows contain forecast information for one particular location. A description of the data fields in each of the precis forecast files follows:
| location | Location for which Precis forecast applies (field size: 30) |
| state | State in which "Location" resides (field size: 3) |
| forecast_date | Date for which forecast applies (format: YYYYMMDD) |
| issue_date | Date when forecast is issued (format: YYYYMMDD) |
| issue_time | Local time where forecast is issued (format: HHMMDD) |
| min_0 | Forecasted minimum temperature for "forecast_date" |
| max_0 | Forecasted maximum temperature for "forecast_date" |
| min_1 | Forecasted minimum temperature for "forecast_date" + 1 day |
| max_1 | Forecasted maximum temperature for "forecast_date" + 1 day |
| min_2 | Forecasted minimum temperature for "forecast_date" + 2 day |
| max_2 | Forecasted maximum temperature for "forecast_date" + 2 day |
| min_3 | Forecasted minimum temperature for "forecast_date" + 3 day |
| max_3 | Forecasted maximum temperature for "forecast_date" + 3 day |
| min_4 | Forecasted minimum temperature for "forecast_date" + 4 day |
| max_4 | Forecasted maximum temperature for "forecast_date" + 4 day |
| min_5 | Forecasted minimum temperature for "forecast_date" + 5 day |
| max_5 | Forecasted maximum temperature for "forecast_date" + 5 day |
| min_6 | Forecasted minimum temperature for "forecast_date" + 6 day |
| max_6 | Forecasted maximum temperature for "forecast_date" + 6 day |
| min_7 | Forecasted minimum temperature for "forecast_date" + 7 day |
| max_7 | Forecasted maximum temperature for "forecast_date" + 7 day |
| forecast_0 | Short forecast summary for "forecast_date" |
| forecast_1 | Short forecast summary for "forecast_date" + 1 day |
| forecast_2 | Short forecast summary for "forecast_date" + 2 day |
| forecast_3 | Short forecast summary for "forecast_date" + 3 day |
| forecast_4 | Short forecast summary for "forecast_date" + 4 day |
| forecast_5 | Short forecast summary for "forecast_date" + 5 day |
| forecast_6 | Short forecast summary for "forecast_date" + 6 day |
| forecast_7 | Short forecast summary for "forecast_date" + 7 day |
Last updated: 8/2/2010
