Good read on the ABC today about Australia's declining weather observation stations - and the important work that historical climatologists like Linden Ashcroft do, unearthing old records of weather obs.
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Good read on the ABC today about Australia's declining weather observation stations - and the important work that historical climatologists like Linden Ashcroft do, unearthing old records of weather obs.
As a kid, my family kept daily rainfall observations - it was always fascinating looking at the old records.
The quiet disappearance of Australia's rainfall observation network
For more than 60 years, Frank Pritchard has diligently checked the weather, adding to a record that stretches back more than a century. But he's part of a quietly shrinking network of observers around Australia. Without it, scientists say we risk missing out on important information that could help improve weather forecast models and climate projections.
(www.abc.net.au)
Honestly it's really no surprise I ended up in the geo/environmental sciences.
A family that kept weather observations, participated in fish restocking, had a well-marked bird ID book where we recorded the first sighting of any bird, living in remote Australia, holidays spent camping in a swag for weeks on end, weekends swimming at waterfalls or snorkelling on the great barrier reef, growing up through the Big Dry, when we measured the family's water by feeling the rainwater tank and tracking the declining pressure of our bore...
I think sometimes my parents (a carpenter and a teacher's aide/school admin) wonder how I ended up where I am, but it's really their fault
What other choice was there but to be a bit in love with the world and its processes? -
@SeaFury it's actually a worry!! Especially for rain when - as Linden points out in the article - it's so heterogeneous across the landscape.
Will be keen to hear what you find (although 'spare time' at the end of the PhD is usually in the negatives! Hope you're hanging in there)
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@david very odd, as I think the network includes ~5000 volunteer weather observers. Maybe they have enough of a density of observations where you live? It's a shame though, more data is more data!
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@SeaFury sending you the best vibes for the End of (PhD) Times
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@david the BOM data infrastructure is an asbolute nightmare
I don't know anyone to contact, @ibk or @adamhsparks might have some idea about how to get the obs to them
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...in these cases I always wonder "what was the disagreement with ACCESS or ECMWF?"
sending PhD finishing strength!
...and yes, especially in [expensive/difficult] to sample climate systems its already happened that we get "...but your observation is wrong the model says..."
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Unfortunately I don't think this is the answer. Relying on corporations to provide a service isn't a robust solution. If this data was contributed to the BOM, that would be amazing though!
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We just need the BOM to modernise (slim chances of that haha)
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@dharmadan @michcampbell @SeaFury unfortunately, I’d not use the words BOM and “open source” together
Edit, hah! Saw the reference to {bomrang}
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@david the BOM data infrastructure is an asbolute nightmare
I don't know anyone to contact, @ibk or @adamhsparks might have some idea about how to get the obs to them
@michcampbell @david @ibk no idea.
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@pewnack oh I love that!
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I heard a rumour once that the Tully LPO fudged the numbers to steal the 'wettest town in Aus' crown from Babinda - rumour was once the posty retired there was a step change in the precip
No idea if true, but I badly want it to be!
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Good read on the ABC today about Australia's declining weather observation stations - and the important work that historical climatologists like Linden Ashcroft do, unearthing old records of weather obs.
As a kid, my family kept daily rainfall observations - it was always fascinating looking at the old records.
The quiet disappearance of Australia's rainfall observation network
For more than 60 years, Frank Pritchard has diligently checked the weather, adding to a record that stretches back more than a century. But he's part of a quietly shrinking network of observers around Australia. Without it, scientists say we risk missing out on important information that could help improve weather forecast models and climate projections.
(www.abc.net.au)
@michcampbell for us peeps, there’s network here to share rain gauge measurements
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