Cairns Saddle Mountain weather radar to be upgraded

18/08/2014

The Bureau of Meteorology will begin an upgrade of the Cairns weather radar on Saddle Mountain today.

Bureau of Meteorology Queensland Regional Director, Mr Rob Webb, said the upgrade would benefit communities in the Cairns and wider North Queensland region.

"The work will include the addition of Doppler capability, which will deliver higher quality radar data to the Bureau and the community," Mr Webb said.

"There will also be improvements to resolution and accuracy due to the use of more modern technology."

While construction and testing of the new radar takes place, the radar will be unavailable with a return to service commencing around the start of the cyclone season. The new Doppler functionality will be added in early 2015.

"During the outage, the Cairns Airport radar will be displayed on the Bureau’s website and the community will also have access to satellite images, automatic weather stations and 7 day forecasts from the Bureau’s Next Generation Forecast and Warning System," Mr Webb said.

"We understand that members of the community value radar coverage, however the upgrade requires the existing radar to be turned off so it can be replaced with a new radar and testing can be completed.

"In order to minimise the impact on the community and specialised users, staff are working hard to ensure the new radar is up and running and delivering improved services as soon as possible."

No other radars in Queensland will be affected by the outage.

For further information go to Weather radars.