THE Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin automated weather station network has recently been upgraded to improve service to farmers, irrigators and other users.
The AWS network for the SAMDB region extends from Burra in the north to Narrung in the south and consists of 44 automatic weather stations.
The upgrade will improve the reliability of data provision for the network with other enhancements including displaying several AWS networks on the one site, 15-minute data updates, the ability to view information by table or chart – depending upon user preference, calculators for growing degree days, rainfall amount, chill portions and hours, daylight hours and an easier to navigate website.
Natural Resources SAMDB team leader Tony Randall said the updated website had been strengthened with the inclusion of 20 stations from the South East NRM region, four stations from Langhorne Creek Grape and Wine region, 10 stations from the Lower Murray Water Network in Vic, five stations from the Alinytjara Wilurara Natural Resources region and display of three stations from the Barossa Improved Grazing Group.
“Weather data from the AWS network will now receive and display data every 15 minutes on the website rather than the previous hourly update frequency,” he said.
“This will be an enormous improvement for farmers monitoring Delta T, approaching rainfall, wind conditions and GFDI.”
Information and weather data on the website is available for yesterday, present day, past week, past month, and past year, as well as providing information on current warnings.
”The data from the network assists with decision making in practical applications ranging from frost risk monitoring to projection of irrigation requirement,” Mr Randall said.
“For example, crop ETo data gives farmers an idea of how much moisture a crop has lost per day so they can decide when to irrigate and how much water will meet the crop’s water use.”
Where possible soil moisture monitoring probes are also installed at AWS sites to show the effectiveness of rainfall, for example how much moisture was used compared to the amount of rainfall received.
The information from these probes is available at the Natural Resources SAMDB website at http://www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/samurraydarlingbasin/land-and-farming/tools-for-land-managers/soil-moisture-monitoring-network.
The new website is also mobile friendly and will re-format to suit a mobile phone screen, allowing landholders to access local weather information while out in the field.
Users can choose to view the weather forecast or information that is specific to on-farm activities that they are undertaking such as spraying, seeding, harvesting and irrigation.
Mr Randall said he was confident the new site would meet user requirements.
The new website can be accessed by clicking on the NRM Weather station icon on the Natural Resources SAMDB homepage: http://www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/samurraydarlingbasin/home or directly at https://www.awsnetwork.com.au.