History of Ceduna Meteorological Office

Observations started at Ceduna Meteorological Office in 1939 when the RAAF, in conjunction with the then Department of Civil Aviation, opened the Airport. At that time the Meteorological Office was in the Terminal building on the north side of the airport. It operated from there until 1969, when the current building was built on the south side of the airport. In 1990 a new automatic WF100 Wind Finding radar was installed. Three officers remain taking manual observations at the station and conducting weather balloon flights , while an Automatic Weather Station, installed in 1990, allows the constant collection of additional weather data.

The Ceduna office is part of a world wide network of surface and upper air observing stations, of which there are more than fifty such stations in Australia. The data are vital input into determining the present state of the weather, being the starting point for providing weather forecasts, and are also vital for climate, providing valuable information on long term trends and variations in local and global weather. Every six hours a weather balloon is released to measure wind regimes vertically through the atmosphere. These balloons are tracked by radar to as high as 20km altitude. All data is distributed to the Regional Forecasting Centres and the National Climate Centre in Melbourne. High standards of accuracy are essential, and quality is continuously monitored.