Using AWN
AWN is a HUGE site (346,055 files as at 21/7/2011) but finding your way around is easy if you follow this short guide.
- Use the menu and sub-menus at the top of each screen to go to AWN's main sections.
- Some pages that don't
have the menu bar at the top open in a new window.
- The main weather pages have a Links to other sites box that leads you to links to hundreds of relevant sites outside AWN.
- The site is best viewed at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or greater.
Finding what you want
- Forecasts: Weather warnings and forecasts for all Australia, Bureau 7-day OCF guidance forecasts for up to a week for over 600 locations, and computer model forecasts of rain and more.
- Current: The weather today and right now. Radar, lightning, satellite images, detailed rainfall maps, and weather readings from all Australian stations. AWN also presents a huge range of synoptic charts covering the whole world but with particular emphasis on Australia.
- Daily Weather Summaries: Charts, statistics and news stories give the most detailed national weather coverage available in one place for every day back to 1996. Today's is here.
- Recent & Climate: Rainfall, temperature and more for every Australian station going back to the beginning of weather records. Long-term averages, charts, climate change, El Nino.
- Severe: Current and past cyclones, floods, droughts, thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, snowstorms, bushfires, gales and high seas.
- Know-how: How the weather works; observing, analysing and forecasting the weather as well as tech stuff for those keen to expand their weather knowledge.
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Unless otherwise indicated, data and charts are provided by the  |
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Site news
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- 12 January 2012 - Record cold temperatures in SE states. A cold outbreak across Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales occurred on 11 and 12 January following a very strong cold front. On the 11th, the mercury only rose to 0.6C at Mt Hotham summit, setting a new record low maximum temperature for Australia by a considerable margin. Mt Buller and Mt Baw Baw also broke the previous January low maximum record of 1.9 held by Thredbo and Mt Hotham. Full details are in a Special Climate Statement issued by the Bureau of Meteorology today.
- 4 January 2012 - The Annual Climate Statement for 2012 has just been released by the Bureau of Meteorology. It's available online here. Main points:
**Consecutive La Niña events bring Australia's third-wettest year on record and second-highest two year total.
**La Niña brings heavy rain, eases drought and causes widespread flooding.
**Second-highest two-year (2010-2011) rainfall on record.
**Australia's first cooler than average year since 2001.
**Australia's coldest autumn since at least 1950.
**The 10 years from 2002 to 2011 Australia's equal-warmest 10-year period on record.
- 30 November - In a further upgrade to AWN's World Weather Maps, most of the charts now show improved temperature information as well as new information on humidity. For details, see the red box on the main map index page.
- 24 November - There's been an upgrade to AWN's World Weather Maps. All charts except those for oceans and the full globe now show isotherms (lines of equal temperature) more clearly and consistently than before. These make it much easier to identify frontal zones, areas where hot or cold airmasses are invading, and the areas of maximum heat or cold on any chart.
- 5 October - The Mount Everest Weather Webcam makes all others seem insignificant. The solar-powered webcam, situated close to the top of nearby Kala Patthar, 5,675m, looks due east up the magnificent Western Glacier to the 8,848m Everest and its South Col Plateau on the right of the picture. Here's a map (from this blog) showing the relationship of Everest (top right) to Kala Patthar (large red circle top centre). Images are updated every 5 minutes during daylight hours. Nepalese time, shown in the top right of the image, is 5.25 hours behind Australian EDT. Currently, this area is in the transition from the monsoonal wet season to the dry season - there's a good description of Everest weather here, but you'll need a browser that can translate it from Italian. For more information on the camera, visit this page on the website of a very proud Mobotix.
This project by Ev-K2-CNR is accompanied by two Automatic Weather Stations giving real-time data, one close to the webcam (display 1 or display 2) and a second on the South Col (display 1 or display 2) at 7,986m, which qualifies easily as the highest weather station in the world. Download this pdf for brief information on the South Col weather station and preliminary results, and this pdf for a brief examination of data collected since installation on 15 March 2008.
- 5 October - Digital Atmosphere is a program that uses coded data readily available on the Web to produce surface and upper air charts. It is the program I use to produce all the charts in the World Weather Map section, and is used by professionals and keen weather amateurs around the world. The Digital Atmosphere page on this site gives lots of help and resources to Australians using, or thinking of using, the program, and it has just had a major make-over. Visit it here.
- 5 September - An early spring cold snap seems likely for parts of SE Australia at the weekend, particularly NSW where some widespread low-level snow is possible. The cold air is being propelled northwards in a strong south to southwest airstream between a trough in the Tasman Sea and an unusually strong high pressure system of over 1040hPa south of WA. The surge of cold air is clearly visible on the 850hPa level temperature charts [here] - look for the black zero degree line - and other models are forecasting similar outcomes. Keep an eye on the forecasts.
- 30 August - ex-hurricane Irene has now cleared the North American mainland after degenerating into a rain depression. No further special charts are being prepared for this storm.
- 28 August - Hurricane Irene threatens East Coast USA. The most intense storm system to move up the US East Coast in decades is threatening major population centres including New York and Washington. You can follow its progress with hourly surface synoptic charts on AWN [here] including a super-high-scale synoptic which moves with the hurricane. Here are some other useful links:
- US National Hurricane Centre forecast tracks and intensity [here]
- US National Weather Centre's technical discussion [here]
- Radar, satellite images and forecast tracks from a number of models from Weather Underground [here]
- There are interesting facts and discussion from Jeff Masters blog [here]
- CNN's weather page is a useful source of general news on the hurricane [here].
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