The ABC have a story – Bustard Head Lighthouse near Agnes Water a relaxing place for volunteers to house-sit 31Dec22
www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-31/agnes-water-lighthouse-volunteer-caretakers/101801360
When I check on BoM Climate Data Online (CDO) rainfall data for Bustard Head Lighthouse #39018 starts at 1885 and looks mostly complete to 1985 (when it was automated) then a big gap to 2003 then it is riddled with gaps to the present as is much weather data from the wide brown land. www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/?ref=ftr
Temperature shows in two blocks – 1913 to 1938 then 1953 to 1986. So we can record rainfall in recent decades but temperature is beyond the capacity of Australia, yet the photo in the ABC article shows a Stevenson screen.
In 2014 there was another media story – Lighthouse of horror: The disturbing history of Queensland’s Bustard Head lightstation Sam Clench 23May2014 www.news.com.au/travel/lighthouse-of-horror-the-disturbing-history-of-queenslands-bustard-head-lightstation/news-story/e44d619f78bcfa4dd275dafb04870968
I also blogged on the subject in 2015 – Was the automating of Australian lighthouses in the 1990’s a policy stupidity ?
www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=3886
Category Archives: BoM Australia
Weather Bureau for Australia
So irrigation is only 1% of the Murray–Darling Basin!!!
The BoM has opened new www pages about the MDB and this “megafact” jumps out.
mdbwip.bom.gov.au/999/#4.6/-31.5/147
1,061,469 km2 total area of MDB.
11,000 km2 irrigated area (2019–20) – 1% of total area.
Our GreenLeft anti-dam brigade that now rules the wide brown land works hard to increase river water wasting to the sea.
I will add data putting MDB dams in true perspective.
Our GreenLeft ALPABC has just published this bad mouthing of Burrendong Dam.
From ‘moonscape’ to ‘oasis’, the pitfalls of controlling water in worsening climate extremes
www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-20/how-to-manage-water-as-climate-extremes-deepen/101769978
NSW cold records tumbling in mild start Australian summer
We knew as data came in for November that the BoM Australian mean temperature series ACORN 2.2 showed broad agreement with lower troposphere NASA satellite data from the University of Alabama at Huntsville as both showed a cooler period after 2020 – see chart by Perth based Chris Gillham of Scribeworks at waclimate.net/australia-cooling.html We know that Australia is experiencing its third consecutive LaNina and a few years of much rainfall and flooding. As December started there were BoM sourced media stories of heatwaves or forecast heatwaves but I am not aware of any heatwaves happening much. Links below in my comment as editing function is reduced in my main posts.
Eugowra NSW flood history from the 1800’s out of old newspapers
This is a guest article by Lance Pidgeon who has put time into extracting old press reports from Trove the National Library of Australia pages of historic newspapers.
EUGOWRA. MOST CLUELESS FLOOD WARNING ON RECORD? by Lance Pidgeon. see links in first comment below
There is an image from trove missing at the start of Lance’s article –
By chance Our ABC compiled a photo essay “Wiped out and wanting answers – As the residents of Eugowra begin to rebuild their lives after a deadly flash flood saw them clambering onto rooftops, they are also searching for answers as to how the scale of the disaster caught them by surprise. By Xanthe Gregory and Jessica Clifford ABC Central West Updated 6 Dec 2022
Australias hottest day was at Oodnadatta 62 years ago
50.7 degrees C on 2nd January 1960 www.bom.gov.au/climate/extreme/records.shtml
Australias weather records in general are mostly decades old – says nothing in support of “climate change”
Must drive the BoM mad that with all their new AWS and electric/electronic probes that they can not data-mine a hotter day from somewhere, anywhere and back-up global warming.
Surreal March BoM Temperature Outlooks compared to UAH satellites
UAH have finally brought out their global map of lower troposphere anomalies for March 2022.
The satellite brightness sounders found overall decidedly unremarkable temperatures from the lower troposhere (surface to approx 8kms) across the wide brown land.
The BoM March Outlook for max temperature (daylight) Predicted much warmer than UAH satellites measured.
The BoM March Outlook for min temperature (night time) Predicted HUGELY warmer than UAH satellites measured.
Then for another BoM comparison you can look at the Max and Min actual anomaly maps for March.
BoM anomaly map for Max T you can adjust to see min – this link is for Outlooks on 3rd March – you can reset for late Feb.
Plenty to compare & contrast and ponder.
ScoMo hapless in face of flood anger at Lismore
Nothing here goes close to meeting the pub test. No argument with the Feds disaster relief and National emergency declaration but people have to accept that they chose to live in one of the most flood prone areas in the wide brown land.
I note pollies(Littleproud was one) are throwing around “unprecedented” and caving to the GreenLeft by accepting that current floods are due to “climate change”.
I would not accept the “unprecedented” claim until we had a report by independent meteorologists & hydrologists assessing all rainfall and river data back 140 or more years.
[1] The report should contain maps and tables of rainfall stations for every decade so the increase in stations is obvious.
Station numbers would have increased in recent decades making it more likely to register high daily readings.
[2] The report should show by maps and analysis of historic landuse data the increase in areas cleared for agriculture over 140 years. Aerial photos mostly post WWII will allow more accurate assessment of land clearing in the last 70 years. Satellite imagery should assist in recent decades. It is well known that rainfall on forested land does not runoff as quickly as on cleared grassed farm land so flood peaks tend to be lower.
[3] The report should show by maps and analysis of historic urban data the increase in urban areas and population over a hundred years because rain on urban paved areas would runoff and contribute to flooding quicker than on farmed or bush areas.
[4] There should be a look-back analysis at post WWII State Govt and council planning changes relevant to building houses and shops/commercial buildings, in flood prone areas and an assessment of levees at Lismore.
The HISTORY OF LISMORE FLOOD EVENTS 1870-2017 is from Lismore City Council Large Chart
BoM climate Outlooks for Jan all disasters
The links should take you direct to the maps.
Jan 2022 rain Outlook disaster
Monthly rainfall percentages for Australia 01/01/2022 – 31/01/2022 actual result
Jan 2022 Max temperature Outlook disaster
Jan 2022 Max temperature anomaly actual result
Jan 2022 Min temperature Outlook disaster
Jan 2022 Min temperature anomaly actual result
Giles in central Australia is not a pristine weather station site
The BomWatch blog has published Day/Night temperature spread fails to confirm IPCC prediction examining max min and DTR temperature data from the BoM purpose built weather station Giles 13017 in far eastern WA near the WA-SA-NT border junction. The main points of the BomWatch article is that Giles is a pristine site and that DTR has not closed as the IPCC expects. In 2014 I blogged on the loony-toon BoM adjustments to Giles for ACORN 1. So I have a 2013 Giles Basic Climatological Station Metadata pdf – a sort of station diary – on my HDD. A check of the Giles pdf shows that a gravel road that ran through the instruments area near the screen was bitumen sealed in the 12 months between the Sep 2011 and Sep 2012 site maps. Ken Stewart blogged on the Giles site in 2019 The Wacky World of Weather Stations: No. 171- Giles (WA) and Ken shows Google Earth images that indicate the screen was ~20m from the sealed road. So the sealed road would introduce some quota of UHI into the data. Ken also pointed out that a 2019 site photo from JoNova shows the whole area of the screen fenced rectangle covered by gravel with no grass – Ken rates the site “non-compliant”. The 2013 Giles Basic Climatological Station Metadata pdf shows on page 23 Station Equipment History that on 1st June 1992 under Air Temperature that – “INSTALL Temperature Probe – Dry Bulb (Type Rosemount)”.
So prior to 1st June 1992 temperatures would have been recorded by liquid in glass thermometers probably in older/larger type Stevenson screen. The post 1992 probe would produce readings over very short periods of seconds which would lead to higher temperatures being recorded than would have been recorded by a liquid in glass thermometer.
Outback SA wet not so unprecedented as BoM claims
We have all seen the news over the weekend of flash flooding on the Eyre Peninsula and other areas of South Australia – this ABC article quotes the BoM saying “We’ve seen seven all-time records up until this point through the Eyre Peninsula largely,” Mr Lainio said. “Falls of anywhere between, say, 80 to 90 millimetres to over 150mm in a 24-hour period. Those locations have never seen falls of that amount.” I did a quick search for monthly rainfalls and found that an event in Feb 1946 seems in a similar ballpark to the big falls last weekend. 
Moonaree 16029 ~150km N of Kimba had over 200mm rain in Feb 1946 and 2 days around 18th registered 197mm. So here we have another instance of where the BoM aided & abetted by the ABC fail to find rain from BoM history. Map made at BoM “Recent and historical rainfall maps” – choose your time. Larger version Feb 1946 rain map.