ANOTHER piece of the weather jigsaw is in place with the launch of a new Doppler radar weather station at Watheroo.
The station was officially opened by Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan recently and joins its two sister stations at Newdegate and South Doodlakine to give widespread weather information across the WA grainbelt.
Towering at 27 metres, the radar completes a scan every six minutes providing real time rainfall, wind and thunderstorm activity.
Ms MacTiernan said the radar network would offer farmers a more sophisticated network for weather prediction.
“We see this as a very important part of improving the productivity of agriculture, giving you greater capacity to make strategic judgement about your inputs,” she said.
“This radar will massively improve our capability to provide good quality information on which to base your decisions.”
The new station went online last month and information is available through the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) websites.
Unlike its sister radars, the Watheroo station was built on private land.
The Keamy family host the site.
Farm owner Alex Keamy said it was a fitting tribute to his father, Robert Keamy, who was an enthusiastic weather recorder, recording daily rainfall and weather summaries for BoM for more than 50 years.
“The weather was a real passion of dad’s and he had a drive to get the station set up in this region,” he said.
“He passed away in October and got to see the initial stages of it – he was happy to be a part of it and could see the value of it for the local community.”
Mr Keamy said the new station would play a significant role in providing information for local farmers and emergency services.
“For us and for the community and districts it is one of the important technological advancements that we have had for day-in, day-out information, not just for rainfall and winds but for fire predictions,” he said.
“It will be massive in terms of the information and productivity that everyone in the farming industry will get from the station.”
BoM acting regional director Graham Reader said the new station could deliver many benefits.
“Being able to see the radar in real time rather than have a gap in the coverage and trying to extrapolate what might be there, that’s an obvious benefit,” he said.
“In terms of rainfall, on both the BoM and DAFWA websites you get accumulated rainfall over various time frames but this radar will give you an aggregated fall over a region so your property might get falls in two to three different parts.
“The Doppler is also able to detect wind change, that is important if there is a fire – the wind change is what generally fans the fire so the meteorologist will be able to track that change at it comes through and there will be benefits there.
“Lastly, you will be aware of the severe thunderstorms that we get in this part of the world.
“Doppler radar has a good resolution that allows the meteorologist to see the detailed structure of those storms and help to predict the severity of their movement.”
The radar is connected with DAFWA’s 175 weather stations and data from the site will also play a key role in DAFWA’s eConnected project and its decision support tools, according to DAFWA grains and livestock executive director Peter Metcalfe.
He said plans were in place to upgrade weather stations at Geraldton, Albany and Esperance to provide a network of seven.
“We can store historical data from the radar which is then used in DAFWA’s decision support tools which will build their capability,” he said.
“It will give us the most comprehensive network of weather stations in the world and comparable to the United Kingdom and it is a great opportunity for WA grain growers to take some of that technology and convert it into good, solid support tools.”
The installation of the three Doppler radars was part of a Royalties for Regions $23 million project between DAFWA and BoM, with the radar at Newdegate commissioned in October, followed by South Doodlakine in March.
Ms MacTiernan said the new Labor government was keen to rebuild the scientific capability of DAFWA following years of cut backs within the department.
“We are keen to drive and build back up the scientific and technical capacities within DAFWA,” she said.
“DAFWA over many decades has done incredible work and they have gone through some difficult times and a lot of capability has been taken out of the department and a lot has gone into short-term funding through external groupings.
“We are strongly of the view that you can’t keep doing leading-edge research if you do not have the opportunity to have long-term positions in the department, so even in these very challenging economic times our focus is on rebuilding those capabilities and improving the capabilities in the area of climate.”
