For a limited time, farmers can register their weather station/s for a free data checking service called ObsCheck. To register contact BCG Project Manager—Research, Kate Finger on 0448 823 353 or [email protected]
On-farm weather stations and soil moisture probe technologies are valuable tools when making weather-sensitive farming operation decisions including sowing, spraying, spreading, hay production, insects and disease monitoring and harvesting.
BCG Project Manager—Research, Kate Finger said registering your weather station is easy and has real value for farming business: “We are encouraging farmers to register for ObsCheck to have their weather station data quality checked and regularly monitored. This will ensure on-farm decisions are being made with reliable, quality data. Registration will also enable farmers to be alerted when their weather station is malfunctioning so they can act swiftly to avoid misinformed decisions which can cause loss of income and unnecessary stress.”
To sign up, farmers need a weather station with 2 years historical data and a SSH key (which BCG can help obtain).
What is ObsCheck?
The Bureau of Meterology in partnership with CSIRO have established a quality check service for rainfall and temperature observation data from privately run weather stations.
Weather stations owners who subscribe their devices will receive daily reports about the quality of the data which will have been checked by the Bureau.
The Bureau will use statistical methods to determine how close the daily weather observations are to the Bureau’s best estimate at the same location by comparing it to:
- Nearby Bureau automatic weather station observation data
- Australian Gridded Climate Data
- Outputs from numerical weather prediction computer models
- Quality-controlled radar data
This opportunity has become available through a new weather station project investigating how on-farm weather stations and soil moisture probes can better support communities, farmers and emergency services to prepare and respond to fire and flood emergencies.
The project will also look at long-term funding for the sites and will investigate alternative ways to transmit data where mobile coverage is poor.
The work is being conducted through the ‘More Robust Weather Station Network to Support Climate Resilience’ project, led by Riverine Plains, which recently received grant funding from the Australian Government.
Riverine Plains along with project partners Birchip Cropping Group, Central West Farming Systems, FarmLink and Holbrook Landcare network, collectively manage a network of over 80 on-farm weather stations and soil moisture probes across Southern Australia.
