About Weather Forecast Services
Forecast services for General Public purposes
The Bureau of Meteorology continually monitors the weather patterns across Australia on behalf of the Australian community. Generally forecasts are issued in the early morning and late afternoon to meet media broadcast requirements. Forecasts may be updated at any time if the short term weather patterns are expected to change rapidly.
Australian digital forecast database
The Australian Digital Forecast Database (ADFD) contains official weather forecast elements produced by the Bureau of Meteorology, such as temperature, rainfall and weather types, presented in a gridded latitude and longitude based format covering the next 7 days. The grids form the basis of the MetEye maps and are used to produce many of the forecasts on our website.
State forecast
Provides a broad forecast of weather conditions, rainfall, temperature and winds across the State. Includes a summary of the current weather patterns that are affecting the State's weather.
Designed for radio broadcasts, newspapers, and for general users to quickly ascertain expected conditions across the State.
District forecast
Provides a general forecast of weather conditions, rainfall, temperature, UV and winds for the forecast district. Includes location forecasts for major centres within the district, and has a summary of the current weather patterns that are affecting the State.
Designed for radio broadcasts, newspaper, and for general public users.
Location forecasts
Provides a forecast of weather conditions, winds, UV and temperature for a major population centre.
Designed for local radio, newspapers, and for general users. The location forecast complements the District forecasts by providing more localised detail.
City forecasts
Provides a detailed forecast of weather conditions, temperature, winds and UV for the wider Metropolitan area of the Capital city. It also includes temperature forecasts for suburbs within the Capital city area.
Designed for the general user, TV news broadcasts, radio, internet and newspaper media.
Précis forecasts
Provides a short summary of the weather forecast in a few words. The length of a précis forecast is less than 30 characters.
Designed for general users, newspapers, radio and TV users who need a short summary of the weather forecasts.
Alpine forecasts
Provides a forecast of weather conditions, wind, temperature and snow fall conditions for Alpine Regions.
Designed for Alpine communities and recreation users, businesses and infrastructure managers.
Forecast services for Marine users
Coastal waters forecast
Provides a forecast of winds, seas, swells and other weather conditions, for each coastal waters zone. Includes a summary of the current weather patterns that are affecting the State's coastal areas.
Designed particularly for small craft engaged in commercial activities such as fishing and trading, or those used for recreation or in sporting events such as yacht races and operating within 60 nautical miles of the coast.
Local waters forecast
Provides a forecast of winds, seas and other weather conditions over the local waters area.
Designed for local waters such as bays, harbours and inland waters on which a large number of commercial and/or pleasure craft operate.
High Seas forecast
Provides a forecast of winds, seas and swells for open ocean areas. Includes positional information on significant weather systems that may affect shipping.
Designed to meet the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) agreement that ensures that these forecasts are broadcast by radio and satellite to meet the requirements of ships on the high seas.
Forecast and warning services for Agricultural purposes
Sheep grazier alerts
Provides warnings of wet and windy conditions to enable sheep graziers to take action to reduce losses among newly born lambs and newly shorn sheep due to hypothermia.
Frost risk forecasts and warnings
Provides forecasts and warnings of frost primarily to assist in reducing damage to frost-sensitive plants and crops, as well as machinery.
Brown rot warnings
Provide warnings to fruit growers of conditions conducive to the development of brown rot on fruit.
Downy mildew forecasts
Provide forecasts of wet and mild weather conditions likely to lead to an infection of Downy Mildew in grape growing areas.
