The bureau's latest round of website updates are now live, with weather map improvements which make it easier to find rainfall information.
This update includes the addition of radar locations, radar quick links, changes to how rainfall is displayed and radar range rings to provide a visual measurement guide to how far rainfall is from familiar landmarks and locations.
Several enhancements have been made to the rain radar and weather map, with new features that bring the radar experience closer to the old radar view.
Website visitors can now find and view their local radar on the weather map, with the addition of a radar locations feature, radar quick links and clickable radar icons.
Additionally, new radar range rings provide a visual measurement guide to help users understand how far away rain is from familiar landmarks. The size of the range rings is relative to the distances described and the location of the radar site.
Rain is now better detected and more accurately displayed on the weather map, with higher definition and detail when very light to moderate rainfall is observed and when data from overlapping radars is used.
Each radar now has a unique link (URL), making it easy to save, share and bookmark favourite radar views.
Bureau of Meteorology CEO Dr Stuart Minchin said that the latest updates address community feedback on the radar experience.
"We know how much value the community places on their local rain radar, so we've listened to feedback and made these updates to help you get to your local radar faster and estimate how far away rain is," Dr. Minchin said.
"There are more updates planned for later this year, including some changes to Australian places with dual-names."
"We encourage the community to continue to share their website feedback, and we will respond with enhancements and adjustments."
Video: New rain radar tools and shortcuts
So let's dive in. Take a look and see what's changed.
From the home page of the bureau website, you can see the rain radar by selecting rain radar and weather maps on the top right.
And here in the radar view, there's now a new button.
Radars here in the upper right, where you can select which radar you'd like to see information from.
By default, our capital cities are listed here, but you can go into any of the state and territory pages and find regional radars as well.
For today, let's go into New South Wales and select Newcastle.
And here you might notice a few changes.
The map is zoomed and centred on the radar you've selected.
The zoom level is approximately the same as the 128km zoom which was available on our old website.
Also in the radar viewer, there's a radar card in the top left telling you which radar you're looking at and a symbol right on the radar's location.
We have added these dynamic range rings, and these rings will scale up or scale down as you zoom in and out on the map.
Range rings are these circles around the radars location alongside distances on the horizontal line.
That's there to act as a guide and help you judge how far away the rainfall is from known landmarks and locations.
There have been some data processing improvements to the rainfall, so it should look a little better in situations where the rain is very light or where you're seeing information from overlapping radar sites.
Once you've selected a radar to put on the map and you go back to the top here, you will now have a unique link in your URL right at the top, which you can save and bookmark or even share.
Every time you follow that link, the radar page will open with the radar exactly as you like it.
If you don't want these settings on your map, that's fine too, they can be toggled off.
To do so, you go into the settings on the upper right and you toggle off radar sites, much like you can with radar coverage.
I hope you enjoy using the new radar tools and if you do run into any trouble, you can always visit the website help page for tips and troubleshooting advice.