Community bands together for local weather network

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Developer David Brodrick and Anne Gibson, host of a Belconnen weather station and webcam, with the weather telemetry computer. Image supplied.

Hail in Tuggeranong, sunny in the Inner North; the weather can vary over a couple of kilometres in the ACT – but what if you could access localised information?

A group of weather enthusiasts are banding together to build a weather website with a local flavour. The new canberraweather.info website includes a network of local weather stations as well as live weather cameras, which capture time-lapse animations of clouds and storms.

Developer David Brodrick said the Canberra Weather Station Network is based off a similar project completed in Narrabri, NSW.

“Where I previously lived in Narrabri, NSW a friend and I engaged the local community and together we built a unique website which has around 40 weather stations just in Narrabri Shire,” he said.

Mr Brodrick moved to the ACT in 2018 and has worked with members of the community to start developing the network here. To date, he has rolled out five weather stations across the ACT with the immediate goal to have one in each of the major town centres.

“Ultimately we would like to continue to increase the density of the weather network.”

He said the goal of the website is to provide “as much information as we can along with unique observations”.

“It gives people that extra information,” he said. “They can see if Tuggeranong has had 40mm of rain and somewhere else has only had 4mm.

“We have had a really positive response from those who have become aware of the weather station set up near them.”

Mr Brodrick is keen to expand the network and invited people who may already monitor the weather in their area to become involved.

“There is an opportunity for people that have some of the [weather] equipment already and want to contribute their data,” he said. The project uses Davis Instruments which, according to Mr Brodrick, provide “reliable and accurate data”.

If you would like to become involved with the Canberra Weather Station Network, contact David via [email protected]

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