About the Forecast Explorer
The Bureau is planning to upgrade its weather forecasting services across the country in the next few years as part of its roll-out of the Next Generation Forecast and Warning System (find out about the latest state roll-out).
New services include graphical, map-based representations of forecasts.
For the first time in Australia, quality controlled weather forecasts provided by the Bureau are available in graphical or map form out to 7 days, for anywhere in the state and coastal areas.
The Forecast Explorer service enables the user to find, display and zoom into weather details for their area down to the 6 kilometre grid scale by point and click.
Some useful tips on how to use the viewer are linked from the Help tab above the maps.
Next Generation Forecast and Warning System
The "Next Generation Forecast and Warning System" is underpinned by a set of forecast weather element grids, quality controlled by forecasters, for time intervals out to 7 days ahead.
Each weather element, for each time, is stored in the Australian Digital Forecast Database (ADFD) on an high-resolution 6 kilometre by 6 kilometre square grid and maps are generated for display in the Bureau's Forecast Explorer web interface.
The NexGen system is a completely new method of forecasting operations for the Bureau of Meteorology.
Forecasters are able to interact with the weather grids using specially designed grid editing tools. Information stored in the weather grids is also used in the creation of text forecasts provided to the public utilising automated text generation software.
These can be edited by Bureau forecasters if required.
Service upgrade schedule
| State/Region | NexGen FWS rollout | Graphical Forecasts and Forecast Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Victoria | October 2008 | Early 2010 (land only) |
| Victoria | October 2008 | July 2011 (marine) |
| New South Wales & ACT | August 2010 | July 2011 (marine and land) |
| Tasmania | June 2011 | December 2011 |
| South Australia | October 2011 | March 2012 |
| Western Australia | October 2012 | 2013 |
| Queensland | Late 2013 | 2014 |
| Northern Territory | Late 2014 | 2015 |
Benefits of the new system
- Provides state-of-the-art forecast services based on a high-resolution digital forecast database and semi- automated text forecast production;
- Ensures equity of service for city and rural communities, with more frequent and detailed services for everyone, not just those living in major cities;
- Provides graphical weather forecasts, with the ability to generate a forecast for any location via a simple 'point- and-click' of a mouse;
- Extended forecast outlook period, so that forecasts cover more days;
- Improved accuracy, detail, consistency and presentation of forecast and warning information, including for high impact events such as heavy rain or bushfires;
- Provides digital datasets of geospatially-referenced forecast information, available for users such as emergency services to download and ingest into standard GIS-based decision support systems and weather presentation software; and
- Is an efficient and extensible platform for producing forecasts and warnings, including industry-standard formats such as XML.
Download a printable (pdf) file about the Forecast Explorer.
Support Information
Services
Forecast data grids
Feedback
We welcome your feedback to assist our review of this service.
