4 August
2006 - The second of Australia's new generation
weather radars will be opened today at Mt Stapylton,
between Brisbane City and the Gold Coast, said
the Hon Greg Hunt MP, Parliamentary Secretary
with Ministerial responsibility for the Australian
Bureau of Meteorology.
The high resolution Doppler
radar has been constructed as part of the Federal
Government's five-year $62 million radar upgrade
project, announced during the 2003-04 Budget.
"The new radar is ideally
positioned to monitor weather across the Brisbane
area and Gold Coast, and will serve as the premier
radar for Greater Brisbane and most of Southeast
Queensland," said Mr Hunt.
"It also has an excellent
view to the north as far as Tin Can Bay, and southward
to Evans Head (NSW), and provides coverage of
the inland areas of Stanthorpe, Karara, Dalby
and Kingaroy, as well as of Casino and Tenterfield
in northern NSW," he said.
"The new radar will provide
an important boost for local weather services
and is a vital tool for providing high quality
forecast and warning services to southeast Queensland
and northern NSW.
"The public will have easy
access to the data via the Bureau's web site,
where radar images will be displayed at four times
the resolution of other images, and updated every
ten minutes.
"I congratulate David Jull
for his commitment to the project and to weather
services for southeast Queensland," said
Mr Hunt.
Mr David Jull, Federal Member
for Fadden, said the state-of-the-art radar has
Doppler capability, enabling forecasters to "see"
the wind flow and the rainfall intensity associated
with weather systems.
"This information can provide
valuable clues about the potential severity of
thunderstorms and other hazardous weather affecting
Greater Brisbane and its surrounds," said
Mr Jull.
"Forecasters will use this
data to provide more effective short term forecasts
and warnings of severe weather, such as large
hailstones, damaging winds and tornadoes,"
he said.
Other expected ongoing community benefits include
• Improved techniques for assessing
rainfall intensity, leading to more accurate short-term
forecasts of heavy rain;
• Better monitoring of rainfall across southeast
Queensland river catchments, for use in flood
warning operations and water management; and
• Better tracking of the location and strength
of wind changes, for the benefit of mariners,
aviators and fire agencies.
Imagery from the Bureau's network of weather radars
is freely available on the Bureau web site www.bom.gov.au,
consistently rated one of Australia's most heavily
accessed web sites.
Kristy McSweeney
