Olympic Park replaces La Trobe Street as home of Melbourne?s weather
09/12/2014
The Bureau of Meteorology’s weather station at Olympic Park is now officially the home of weather observations for metropolitan Melbourne, with observations at the station in La Trobe St due to permanently cease in early January 2015.
Tarini Casinader, Victoria Regional Director, said the Bureau had opened the upgraded weather station at Olympic Park in November 2013, and had kept the two sites running in tandem for over twelve months to ensure a smooth transition.
“The La Trobe Street weather observation station, located at the Royal Society of Victoria, has been operating since 1908. However, wind recordings were stopped in 2009 due to the poor quality of readings as a result of nearby building development at the city location,” said Ms Casinader.
“The location at Melbourne Olympic Park represents an improvement in the quality of meteorological observations available, and meets international observing standards set out by the World Meteorological Organisation,”
“The station will provide readings of air temperature, wind speed and direction, air pressure and rainfall as well as relative humidity, which explains not just the temperature, but how it feels. These observations are freely available on the Bureau’s external website at ten-minute intervals.”
Ms Casinader says the long-term official record of weather observations for Melbourne extends back to 1855, and is made up of observations from a number of different stations, including Flagstaff Gardens (1858-1863), Melbourne Observatory (1863-1908) and the La Trobe Street site (1908-2014).
“With over 100 years of operation at the current location at the Royal Society of Victoria in Latrobe Street, this move is a particularly rare and historic event.
“The Bureau thanks the Royal Society of Victoria for its support over the last century, and looks forward to a new chapter in its history in Melbourne’s famous sporting precinct at Olympic Park.
“The new site has been made possible by a cooperative partnership between the Bureau and the Melbourne and Olympic Parks, and data from the site will be used in the Bureau’s weather forecasting.
“The Olympic Park site is in an ideal location to provide up-to-date weather information for those attending Melbourne’s world-class sporting events, such as the Australian Open tennis Grand Slam, AFL Grand Final, and Boxing Day Test Match.”
