Historical rainfall, temperature and wind forecast and observations hourly data (2017-05 to 2018-04), used to compare and verify forecasting. Observations data is from a sample of 518 automatic …Show full descriptionHistorical rainfall, temperature and wind forecast and observations hourly data (2017-05 to 2018-04), used to compare and verify forecasting. Observations data is from a sample of 518 automatic weather stations (AWS) over land, and is at the surface level. Data has been aggregated from one-minute readings into hourly values, for forecast comparison purposes. This observations data is partly QC'd. Forecasted weather elements include temperature, maximum and minimum temperature, rainfall probabilities, rainfall amounts, wind speed and wind direction. Different forecast products have different time resolutions, e.g. temperature forecasts are made for each hour, while maximum and minimum temperature forecasts are made for each day. This dataset is approximately 4 Gb in size. LICENCE: The dataset referred to in this metadata record is available/ licenced under the “CC-BY-NC 3.0 au” license. The license summary may be found here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/au/ The full license text may be found here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/au/legalcode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We request attribution as : Australian Bureau of Meteorology (2018), Rainfall, temperature and wind forecast and observations - verification (2017-05 to 2018-05), {Point-of-truth authoritative version of metadata url : http://www.bom.gov.au/metadata/19115/ANZCW0503900703 } Downloaded from [url] on [date] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please refer to [ http://www.bom.gov.au/other/disclaimer.shtml ], for disclaimer details.

Extraction of the operational global wave forecast system (AUSWAVE-G) of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) with a resolution of 0.25° for the Pacific region.

This product is an extraction of the full model output provided by BOM. Only the first forecast of the day for a portion of the Pacific and for a few variables is provided here.

Below is the product description on the BOM website (http://www.bom.gov.au/nwp/doc/auswave/data.shtml):

"The AUSWAVE wave model source code was upgraded from the third-generation wind-wave modelling framework WAVEWATCH III® (WW3) version 3.14 to version 4.18 in early 2016. This included the use of a new physical spectral source term package. Operational runs were performed using surface wind data from the Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS). This model was developed and tested by staff in Bureau National Operations Centre and Research and Development. For more details about this upgrade see the Bureau National Operations Centre Operations Bulletin 106.

The global AUSWAVE-G wave system was upgraded to the new version on 26 May 2020 to incorporate the surface winds from the "Australian Parallel Suite 3" (APS3) ACCESS-G, rather than the previous APS2 version. In addition, the regional AUSWAVE-R wave model was upgraded to use the surface winds from ACCESS-G3 rather than ACCESS-R2."

Surface weather observations are recorded half hourly, primarily from aerodromes with some additional data coming from unmanned automatic weather stations. In special conditions, observations may be made earlier and for cost savings, some stations may only report hourly. The data show the latest reading at each site over the last 60 minutes.

  The following data are recorded:
  datetime, id_num (WMO index number, normally a unique id, but can be missing), id_name (abbreviated name, used to identify the observing site), date, time, wdir (wind direction, degrees from N), wspd (wind speed, knots), t_db (temperature dry bulb, degree C), dp (dew point, degree C), qnh (aircraft altimeter setting, hPa), rf9am (rainfall since 9am, mm), rf10m (rainfall last 10 minutes, mm), vic (visibility, m), avis (automatically measured visibility, m), gust (maximum wind gust last 10 minutes, knots), wx1int (first (most important) present weather intensity), wx1dsc (first (most important) present weather qualifier), wx1wx1 (first (most important) present weather type), wx1wx2 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx1wx3 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx2int (second (less important) present weather intensity), wx2dsc (second (less important) present weather qualifier), wx2wx1 (second (less important) present weather type), wx2wx2 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx2wx3 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), cld1amt (lowest cloud layer amount), cld1typ (lowest cloud layer type), cld1typ (lowest cloud layer base, m), cld2amt (second cloud layer amount), cld1typ (second cloud layer type), cld1base (second cloud layer base, m), cld3amt (third cloud layer amount), cld3typ (third cloud layer type), cld3base (lowest cloud layer base, m), cld4amt (fourth cloud amount), cld4typ (fourth cloud layer type), cld4base (fourth cloud layer base, m), ceil1amt (lowest cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil1base (lowest cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), ceil2amt (second cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil2base (second cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), ceil3amt (third cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil1base (third cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), rotation (required for rotation of wind barbs in MapServer), rh (relative humidity, %), stn_name (full station name).

  Information about codes can be found at http://www.bom.gov.au/weather-services/about/IDY03100.doc.

Extraction of the operational regional wave forecast system (AUSWAVE-R) of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) with a resolution of 0.1° for the Pacific region.

This product is an extraction of the full model output provided by BOM. Only the first forecast of the day for a portion of the Pacific and for a few variables is provided here.

Below is the product description on the BOM website (http://www.bom.gov.au/nwp/doc/auswave/data.shtml):

"The AUSWAVE wave model source code was upgraded from the third-generation wind-wave modelling framework WAVEWATCH III® (WW3) version 3.14 to version 4.18 in early 2016. This included the use of a new physical spectral source term package. Operational runs were performed using surface wind data from the Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS). This model was developed and tested by staff in Bureau National Operations Centre and Research and Development. For more details about this upgrade see the Bureau National Operations Centre Operations Bulletin 106.

The global AUSWAVE-G wave system was upgraded to the new version on 26 May 2020 to incorporate the surface winds from the "Australian Parallel Suite 3" (APS3) ACCESS-G, rather than the previous APS2 version. In addition, the regional AUSWAVE-R wave model was upgraded to use the surface winds from ACCESS-G3 rather than ACCESS-R2."

Three datasets containing climate data, compiled in April 2011, have been purchased from the Bureau of Meteorology. These datasets include observations from stations in all Australian States and Territories. Each dataset includes a file which gives details of the stations where observations were made and a file describing the data. AWS Hourly Data contains hourly records of precipitation, air temperature, wet bulb temperature, dew point temperature, relative humidity, vapour pressure, saturated vapour pressure, wind speed, wind direction, maximum wind gust, mean sea level pressure, station level pressure. Each record for each parameter is also flagged to indicate the quality of the value.Synoptic Data contains records of air temperature, dew point temperature, wet bulb temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, mean sea level pressure, station level pressure, QNH pressure, vapour pressure and saturated vapour pressure. Each record for each parameter is also flagged to indicate the quality of the value.Daily Rainfall Data contains records precipitation in the 24 hours before 9 am, number of days of rain within the days of accumulation and the accumulated number of days over which the precipitation was measured. Each precipitation record is flagged to indicate the quality of the value.

Bureau of Meteorology Australian Digital Forecast Database Grid. Forecasts are issued by the Bureau of Meteorology on a routine basis for each state and merged into one forecast grid for Australia …Show full descriptionBureau of Meteorology Australian Digital Forecast Database Grid. Forecasts are issued by the Bureau of Meteorology on a routine basis for each state and merged into one forecast grid for Australia for each forecast element. This forecast element is the 3 Hourly Wind Wave Height.

Datasets purchased by GA from BoM to study wind speed instrument bias (see Record 2011/23)

Contacts for further details:

• This data record and associated research: Andrew Brown (andrewb1@student.unimelb.edu.au)
• BARPA data: Chun Hsu Su (chunhsu.su@bom.gov.au), Christian Stassen (Christian.Stassen@bom.gov.au), Harvey Ye (harvey.ye@bom.gov.au)

Introduction

This record contains data in support of Brown et al. (2024), including post-processed regional climate model data, automatic weather station observations, and post-processed reanalysis data over southeastern Australia for various time periods over December-Febrary months only (see descriptions below). This data relates to analysis of severe convective wind gusts in historical and future climate, with analysis scripts in this repository. The data are described here according to the directory structure of this record (noting the files and directories have been compressed into barpa_data.tgz), as well as the relevant data sources.

Data sources

• The Bureau of Meteorology Atmospheric Regional Projections for Australia (BARPA). A regional climate model containing a regional (BARPA-R) and convection-permitting (BARPAC-M) configuration, with large-scale forcing from ERA-Interim (1990-2015) and ACCESS1-0 using a historical (1985-2005) and RCP8.5 (2039-2059) forcing. See Brown et al. (2024) and Su et al. (2021) for more details. Note that any reuse of this data should properly acknowledge the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Note also that the BARPA data used here was produced as part of the Electricity Sector Climate Information project (with licence and disclaimers here), with more current BARPA versions (not used here) available at https://dx.doi.org/10.25914/z1x6-dq28.
• Measured wind gusts from automatic weather stations (AWS). Gust data is provided by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, from 272 AWS locations over 2005-2015. Note that any reuse of this data should properly acknowledge the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
• The ERA5 reanalysis from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (Hersbach 2020).
• The ERA-Interim reanalysis from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (Dee 2011).

/10min_points

This directory contains .csv files, with wind gust and related environmental data at 10-minute intervals at point locations, corresponding to automatic weather station locations. Data is available over 2005-2015. Files are named in the form barpac_m_aws_ and barpac_m_aws_. Here,

This data is used in Brown et al. (2024) for evaluation and analysis of BARPA wind gusts in the historical climate (forced by ERA-Interim). The user is directed to that paper for more information on data processing. For the .csv files here, column descriptions are provided in Table 1, below.

/daily_points

This directory contains .csv files, with data associated with daily maximum wind gusts at point locations. This data is derived from the 10min_points data described above, with the same column descriptions in Table 1, below. The different files in this directory are as follows:

• barpac_m_aws_dmax_obs.csv
  Daily maximum observed wind gust from AWS measurements, with associated wind gust ratio and environmental conditions from ERA5.

• barpac_m_aws_dmax_2p2km.csv
  Daily maximum simulated wind gust from BARPAC-M at closest grid point to AWS location, with associated wind gust ratio, lighting flash count, and environmental conditions from BARPA-R.

• barpac_m_aws_dmax_12km.csv
  Daily maximum simulated wind gust from BARPA-R at closest grid point to AWS location, with associated wind gust ratio, lightning flash count, and environmental conditions.

• barpac_m_aws_dmax_erai.csv
  Daily maximum simulated wind gust from ERA-Interim at closest grid point to AWS location, with associated wind gust ratio and environmental conditions from ERA5.

• barpac_m_aws_dmax_2p2km_barpa_r_interp.csv
  As in barpac_m_aws_dmax_2p2km.csv, but wind gusts are interpolated to the BARPA-R grid prior to calculating the daily maximum.

/monthly_nc

This directory contains monthly netcdf files at 12 km horizontal grid spacing, with post-processed BARPA data, relating to simulated severe convective wind gusts (from BARPAC-M), and their associated large-scale environments (from BARPA-R). This includes BARPAC-M and BARPA-R data that has been forced by the ACCESS1-0 global climate model, that is intended for analysis of future changes in severe convective wind events and environments. For further information, the user can refer to the internal file metadata, as well as Brown et al. (2024). The files in this directory are as follows (where

• barpac_scws_
  Monthly counts of simulated severe convective wind events from BARPAC-M, for each type of environment (see cluster in Table 1).

• barpar_
  Monthly counts of favouable severe convective wind environments from BARPA-R (using bdsd, see Table 1), for each type of environment (see cluster in Table 1).

• barpac_scws_bdsd_
  Monthly counts of simulated severe convective wind events from BARPAC-M, that occur under favourable environmental conditions from BARPA-R. For each type of environment (see cluster in Table 1).

• barpac_max_
  Monthly maximum simulated severe convective wind gust, from BARPAC-M, for each type of environment (see cluster in Table 1).

/daily_nc

This directory contains monthly netcdf files at 12 km horizontal grid spacing, with daily maximum wind gusts from BARPAC-M, as well as the wind gust ratio (see wgr_4 in Table 1) and the type of convective environment (from BARPA-R, see cluster in Table 1). This includes BARPA data that has been forced by ERA-Interim and by ACCESS1-0. For further information, the user can refer to the file metadata, as well as Brown et al. (2024). The files in this directory are as follows (where is either historical for historical climate forcing or rcp85 for RCP8.5 climate forcing, is either erai for ERA-Interim or ACCESS1-0, <date1> is the file start date and is the file end date):

• barpa_scw_

/meta

Lists of AWS stations, for each administrative state, with a file containing column descriptions. Note that not all of the stations listed in these files are used for analysis. Fig1.jpeg is from Brown et al. (2024), showing the BARPAC-M domain (also defines the netcdf file spatial extents), and the location of AWS.

Table 1

Surface weather observations (coastal) are recorded half hourly, primarily from aerodromes with some additional data coming from unmanned automatic weather stations. In special conditions, observations may be made earlier and for cost savings, some stations may only report hourly. The data show the latest reading at each site over the last 60 minutes.

  The following data are recorded: datetime, id_num (WMO index number, normally a unique id, but can be missing), id_name (abbreviated name, used to identify the observing site), date, time, wdir (wind direction, degrees from N), wspd (wind speed, knots), t_db (temperature dry bulb, degree C), dp (dew point, degree C), qnh (aircraft altimeter setting, hPa), rf9am (rainfall since 9am, mm), rf10m (rainfall last 10 minutes, mm), vic (visibility, m), avis (automatically measured visibility, m), gust (maximum wind gust last 10 minutes, knots), wx1int (first (most important) present weather intensity), wx1dsc (first (most important) present weather qualifier), wx1wx1 (first (most important) present weather type), wx1wx2 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx1wx3 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx2int (second (less important) present weather intensity), wx2dsc (second (less important) present weather qualifier), wx2wx1 (second (less important) present weather type), wx2wx2 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx2wx3 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), cld1amt (lowest cloud layer amount), cld1typ (lowest cloud layer type), cld1typ (lowest cloud layer base, m), cld2amt (second cloud layer amount), cld1typ (second cloud layer type), cld1base (second cloud layer base, m), cld3amt (third cloud layer amount), cld3typ (third cloud layer type), cld3base (lowest cloud layer base, m), cld4amt (fourth cloud amount), cld4typ (fourth cloud layer type), cld4base (fourth cloud layer base, m), ceil1amt (lowest cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil1base (lowest cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), ceil2amt (second cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil2base (second cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), ceil3amt (third cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil1base (third cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), rotation (required for rotation of wind barbs in MapServer), rh (relative humidity, %), stn_name (full station name). Information about codes can be found at http://www.bom.gov.au/weather-services/about/IDY03100.doc. 

  The dataset is a subset of surface weather observations and only includes those stations that are offshore or within 10 kilometres of the coast.

For each station, an extended list of climate statistics is provided. Data includes various statitics related to air temperature , dew-point temperature , wet-bulb temperature , ground temperature …Show full descriptionFor each station, an extended list of climate statistics is provided. Data includes various statitics related to air temperature , dew-point temperature , wet-bulb temperature , ground temperature , rainfall , wind , sunshine hours , solar exposure , cloud cover , evaporation and relative humidity. Data timespans vary depending on each site's commencement, and when that data parameter was first collected at the site. Data covers all years that a site has been measuring that data parameter. The earliest commencement date of any sites is 1834 Parramatta, NSW). The dataset includes over 1000 sites. Monthly statistics are only included if there are more than 10 years of suitable data. Sites have been included only if a minimum of 10 years of temperature data are available for the site. Thus, statistics for more than 15,000 'rainfall-only' stations are not currently available on this web site, but may be obtained by contacting the Bureau. The sites cover Australasia (including outer islands and 4 in Antarctica). Site locations can be viewed on a map, at [ http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/index.shtml?bookmark=200 ]. Locations are also listed [ http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/ca_site_file_names.shtml ] by State/Territory, and then place name. Both the map and list provide access to a webpage offering the climate statistics for that location (for the 'main' statistics, or for 'all' statistics; and relative to a user-selected period (3 decades, or all years).] Statistics include highest/lowest or mean of monthly values, applied against all years of data, or against a user-selected 30-year subset of the data. Other statistics for a number of elements include: maximum, minimum and ground surface temperatures; rainfall, including extremes and days of rain above 1mm, 10mm, and 25mm; other daily elements including sunshine and evaporation where available; and temperatures, humidity, wind and cloud (nominally) at 9am and 3pm. Explanations of each variable can be found by clicking on the first column of each row in the statistics tables. Note: Many statistics are updated quarterly and recent weather events may not be represented in the statistics below. For more current information on recent extreme values, please refer to the corresponding 'Daily rainfall', 'Maximum temperature' and 'Minimum temperature' data tables for the site, in CDO. (Links to these are provided at the top of the each Site's Climate Statistics webpage; or see See 'SupplementalInformation' section of this record, for details). The top of each Climate Stats webpage also provides a link to the data (for the timespan that the user has selected); as well as to details of the site (via "Map")

Regional and local wind gust hazard estimates are utilised in the Australian building codes through the Australia/New Zealand Wind Loadings Standard. The wind engineering community relies to a significant extent on the peak gust wind speed estimates derived from observations collected over more than 70 years by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). The current wind loading code and the performance of our infrastructure (residential, commercial, industrial and critical infrastructure) is based primarily on hazard estimates from a small dataset, consisting of mainly airport sites. In this paper we present an alternative method for the calculation of gust wind hazard using limate-simulated data. Currently we deal only with gusts associated with synoptic winds as the climate model only provides mean winds at a resolution of 14 km, which does not resolve thunderstorms. The methodology involves three computationally demanding processes: - Calculation of return period (RP) for gust wind speed using a statistical model; - Extraction of wind speeds from a high resolution climate model; and - A Monte Carlo method to generate synthetic gust speeds by performing a numerical convolution of mean wind speeds and regional gust factors. Results of applying the methodology to assess severe wind hazard in Tasmania under current and future climate are shown in a poster also presented at this workshop. In this paper we present the methodology.

Datasets of wind speed purchased from BoM to develop Record 2007/12

Abstract

This dataset and its metadata statement were supplied to the Bioregional Assessment Programme by a third party and are presented here as originally supplied.

Dataset contains 20,089 point locations for Bureau of Meteorology weather stations (sites) - correct as at 28 July, 2014.

Each site in the Bureau of Meteorology's national climate archive has been assigned a site number (also known as a "station number"), which is its primary means of identification. The numbering system was originally established based on the system of rainfall districts which covers only mainland Australia, the island State of Tasmania and the two Bass Strait islands of King and Flinders Islands. In addition to sites within these geographical areas there are also offshore islands and Antarctic sites, which are mostly on the Antarctic continent but also include islands such as Heard Island and Macquarie Island. These sites have numbers which label them as outside the district system. Additional groupings have also been established, including marine sites, and sites (often hydrological in purpose) managed by external agencies.

Dataset History

Construction of the Site Number

Each site has a unique 6 digit number - XYYnnn - and although numbers have occasionally been changed they are not normally reallocated over time. A rough breakdown of the system is as follows:

1.X - defines the station series (0-5; related to station application)

0 & 1 - land-based, Bureau-managed stations;

2 - official Bureau fixed off-shore sites or Island locations, and also special applications;

3 - Antarctic & Sub-Antarctic land based or off-shore stations;

4 - marine sites (eg. ships and buoys);

5 - externally managed fixed sites.

2.YY - station series sub-group

Land-based stations (series 0 & 1) = 01 to 99 (the rainfall districts);

Off-shore islands (series 2) = 00 to 49;

Special applications (series 2) = 50 to 99;

Antarctic & Sub-Antarctic stations (series 3) = 00 to 99;

Marine sites (series 4) = 00 to 99;

Externally managed sites (series 5) = 01 to 99 (the rainfall districts);

3.nnn - sequential count within the above groupings (0-999).

The first 3 numbers give a rough indication of the type of site, who is responsible for the site, and for land-based sites, the district or other area in which it is located. Land-based, Bureau-managed sites are linked to the Australian State where the site is located via the rainfall district. Table One below provides more information. For example Darwin Airport (014015):

Is owned or run by the Bureau, and is located either in mainland Australia or in Tasmania, King or Flinders Islands (the first digit of the site number is a 0);

Is in rainfall district 14, which is in the Northern Territory.

As a further example, Cocos Island is in the Indian Ocean, and has the station number 200284. This site is located outside the rainfall district system and is classified as an "Island" site (the first 3 digits are 200).

Sites run by other organisations which provide data to the Bureau, and sites within the Hydrological Services Program, are given a number beginning with 5. Data from these sites are not currently included within Climate Data Online.

top

The Bureau's site numbering system is not directly related to the station "WMO number", which forms part of the international numbering system used by the world meteorological community. Under this international system Australia is assigned less than one thousand site numbers, whereas we hold data for about 20,000 sites in the climate archive. Unlike the Bureau of Meteorology site numbering system, the WMO number may be reallocated to another location. For example, this may occur if a site ceases to undertake synoptic weather observations which it previously distributed around the world to assist with forecasting the weather.

Allocation of Bureau station numbers

The following table lists the various rainfall district groupings, the sites contained within them, applicable time zones and the relevant administrative region (State) or organization. Current practice is to allocate station numbers sequentially within the district as new sites are created. Consequently, the last three digits of the station number have no relationship with the proximity of one site to another within the district, although this may happen by chance (or when a group of associated sites are established).

Table One. Allocation of Bureau station numbers by administrative region

State, area or ownership

Local Standard

Time Zone

Districts

Site numbers

Western Australia WST

0900 = 0100 UTC 1 - 13 001000 - 013999

101000 - 113999

Northern Territory CST

0900 = 2330 UTC 14 - 15 014000 - 015999

114000 - 115999

South Australia CST 16 - 26 016000 - 026999

116000 - 126999

Queensland EST

0900 = 2300 UTC 27 - 45 027000 - 045999

127000 - 145999

New South Wales (including

the Australian Capital Territory) EST 46 - 75 046000 - 075999

146000 - 175999

Victoria EST 76 - 90 076000 - 090999

176000 - 190999

Tasmania EST 91 - 99 091000 - 099999

191000 - 199999

Islands Various 200 200000 - 249999

Antarctica Various 300 300000 - 399999

Non-Bureau sites Various 501 - 599 501000 - 599999

Dataset Citation

Bureau of Meteorology (2014) Bureau of Meteorology weather stations - All Australia. Bioregional Assessment Source Dataset. Viewed 29 September 2017, http://data.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/dataset/5aa692ee-513b-425c-8c9d-b2a858724c25.

Bureau of Meteorology Australian Digital Forecast Database Grid (ADFD). Forecasts are issued by the Bureau of Meteorology on a routine basis for each state and merged into one forecast grid for …Show full descriptionBureau of Meteorology Australian Digital Forecast Database Grid (ADFD). Forecasts are issued by the Bureau of Meteorology on a routine basis for each state and merged into one forecast grid for Australia for each forecast element. This forecast element (hazardous wind onset) shows if and when hazardous winds will arrive over the next six hours. 'Hazardous' wind is defined as average wind speed 26 knots and above or wind gusts 42 knots and above—a threshold chosen for the safety of recreational boaters. When used in conjunction with official warnings and forecasts, this can provide emergency managers and safety organisations with greater awareness about the onset of dangerous conditions. Hazardous wind onset is produced using two ADFD grids—hourly wind and wind gust forecasts. The output is a single grid with four modes, showing winds that are: 0 = currently forecast to be hazardous 1 = expected to be hazardous in the next two hours 2 = expected to be hazardous in two to six hours 3 = not expected to be hazardous in next 6 hours Unlike other ADFD grids, this grid is updated hourly and contains no time dimension.

Daily binary occurrences of severe convective wind gusts at 35 locations in Australia from 2005-2018, with associated environmental conditions summarised by 20 different convective diagnostics derived from ERA5 pressure level data. Severe convective gusts are not counted if a tropical cyclone is within 500 km of the gust.

Severe convective gust occurrence is defined by a daily maximum gust (3-second maximum) exceeding 25 m/s at a height of 10 m, with two or more lightning strokes in a 50 km radius within 6 hours of the gust from a combination of two separate lightning datasets.

ERA5 diagnostics are provided at the hour before each daily maximum wind gust, whether it be convective or not, representative of instantaneous conditions at the grid point closest to each station.

Data has been created by processing daily maximum wind gust data (available by request from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology; http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/stations/), tropical cyclone tracks (Australian Bureau of Meteorology; http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/tropical-cyclone-knowledge-centre/databases/), ERA5 reanalysis (Hersbach et al., 2020) and lightning data (WWLLN; Virts et al., 2013 and GPATS; available by request at http://www.gpats.com.au/). Code used to process the data exists within this repository:

Data columns are as follows. For all columns not listed, see Brown and Dowdy (2021).

• time: Timestamp from ERA5 (UTC). Daily maximum station gust for that day occurred some time between this time and the next hour.
• location: Short name of BoM station which recorded gust. See Brown and Dowdy (2021) for further information on stations.
• lat: Latitude of station
• lon: Longitude of station
• SCW: Binary occurrence of a severe convective wind gust based on the daily maximum gust.

References:

Brown, A., & Dowdy, A. (2021). Severe Convective Wind Environments and Future Projected Changes in Australia. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126, e2021JD034633. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD034633

Hersbach, H., Bell, B., Berrisford, P., Hirahara, S., Horányi, A., Muñoz‐Sabater, J., et al. (2020), The ERA5 global reanalysis. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 146(730), pp.1999-2049. doi:10.1002/qj.3803

Virts, K. S., Wallace, J. M., Hutchins, M. L., & Holzworth, R. H. (2013), Highlights of a new ground-based, hourly global lightning climatology. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 94(9), 1381–1391.

Australian building codes through the Australia/New Zealand Wind Actions Standard as well as the wind engineering community in general rely to a significant extent on the peak wind gust speed observations collected over more than 60 years by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). The current wind loading code and the performance of our infrastructure (residential, commercial, industrial and critical infrastructure) is based primarily on the Dines anemometer interpretation of the peak gust wind speed. In the early 1990's BoM commenced a program to replace the aging pressure tube Dynes anemometer with the Synchrotac and Almos cup anemometers. As of October 2008 only six Dynes anemometers remain in operation.

This dataset is hourly data values (averaged from 6 minute values), per seaframe station, for sea level, barometric pressure, water temperature, air temperature, sea level Adjusted Residuals, sea level Residuals, wind speed, wind gust, and wind direction*. (Only sea level data is available, from Lorne and Stony Point stations )

Data is from approximately 1992, from the following 16 tide gauge stations (14 operated by BOM) : Townsville - Cape Ferguson QLD, Rockhampton - Rosslyn Bay QLD, Port Kembla NSW, Stony Point VIC, Lorne VIC, Burnie TAS, Triabunna - Spring Bay TAS, Portland VIC, Adelaide - Port Stanvac S.A, Thevenard S.A., Esperance W.A., Perth - Hillarys W.A., Broome W.A., Darwin N.T, Milner Bay - Groote Eylandt N.T, Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Indian Ocean) (1993+) A summary of each station's position (lat, long, SSBM, AHD) is available from http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanography/projects/abslmp/data/data.shtml More station detail (including Australian Height Datum in metres above that station's Tide Gauge Zero, latitude, longitude, monitoring equipment, the station's BOM Station#, ANTT#, GLOSS ID, etc), are available by clicking the port name, on the webpage, or by using this URL formula: http://www.bom.gov.au/ntc/IDO50000/IDO50000_[ANTT#].pdf eg for ROSSLYN BAY NTC AWS http://www.bom.gov.au/ntc/IDO50000/IDO50000_59670.pdf (the ANTT# is provided in the Keywords section of this metadata record) Dates and times, in the data, are given in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). Sea level values are in metres above Tide Gauge Zero (e.g. 1.205 metres) (The Australian Height Datum in metres above tide gauge zero is provided in the station details PDF document.To convert the data to be relative to AHD, subtract that station's AHD value from the observed sea level value.) Missing or erroneous values are set to a value of -9999 14 of the 16 stations are SEAFRAME stations which measure sea level very accurately, and also record meteorological parameters (such as air and water temperature, pressure and wind observations).

Weather observations show what weather has occurred and include Automatic Weather Station and manual observations. Reporting schedules vary according to station type. The data are issued every 10 …Show full descriptionWeather observations show what weather has occurred and include Automatic Weather Station and manual observations. Reporting schedules vary according to station type. The data are issued every 10 minutes and show the latest reading at each site over the last 60 minutes. The following data are recorded: wmoid (WMO index number, normally a unique id, but can be missing), bomid (Bureau of Meteorology site name used to identify the observing site), stnname (observation station name), stnaltname (observation station name in title case), lat, lon, timeutc (datetime, UTC), timeloc (datetime, local time), apptemp (apparent temperature, degrees C), airtemp (air temperature, degrees C), dewpoint (dew point, degree C), mslpres (Mean Sea Level Pressure, hectopascals), relhum (relative humidity, %), winddirdeg (wind direction, degrees from N), windspdkmh (wind speed, 10 minute average from standard height of 10m, kmh) windspd (wind speed, 10 minute average from standard height of 10m, knots), gustkmh (wind gust measured over 3 seconds from standard height of 10 m, kmh), gustspd (wind gust measured over 3 seconds from standard height of 10 m, knots), viskm (visibility, km), rain (rainfall since 9 am local time, mm), rain24hr (rainfall in the last 24 hours before 9 am local time, mm), maxairtemp (maximum air temperature, degrees C between 6 am and 9 pm local time), minairtemp (minimum air temperature between 6pm and 9am local time, degrees C).

Ocean wave hindcast, ongoing and updated monthly from 1979 to present. The 1979-2010 data was generated using the WaveWatch III v4.08 wave model forced with NCEP CFSR hourly winds and daily sea ice (see http://doi.org/10.4225/08/523168703DCC5). January 2011 - May 2013 was generated using the WaveWatch III v4.08 wave model forced with NCEP CFSv2 hourly winds and daily sea ice (see http://doi.org/10.4225/08/52817E2858340). June 2013 onward was generated using the WaveWatch III v4.18 wave model forced with NCEP CFSv2 hourly winds and daily sea ice. The dataset contains spectral wave output at 3683 points, as well as gridded outputs on a global 0.4 degree (24 arcminute) grid, with nested Australian and western Pacific subgrids of 10 and 4 arcminutes resolution. For further information, see Durrant, T., Greenslade, D., Hemer, M. and Trenham, C. 2014. A Global Wave Hindcast focussed on the Central and South Pacific CAWCR Technical Report No. 070. N.B. January 1979 is a "model spin-up" month and data from this month should not be used for research purposes. Spectral wave parameters output: time; station; longitude; latitude; frequency; frequency1; frequency2 (centre, upper and lower bands); direction; Efth (sea surface wave directional variance spectral density); depth; u10m; udir (wind speed and direction 10m above surface); curr; currdir (sea water speed and direction). Gridded parameters output: longitude; latitude; time; MAPSTA (status map) ; U10; V10 (Eastward and Northward wind); CI (sea ice area fraction) ; hs (significant wave height); wl (mean wave length) ; t02 (mean wave period Tm02); t (mean period Tm01); tm0m1(mean period Tm0-1); CgE (wave energy flux); fp (peak wave frequency); dir (mean wave direction); spr (directional spread); dp (peak direction); hs0; hs1; hs2; hs3 (significant wave height partitions); tp0; tp1; tp2; tp3 (peak period partitions); lp0; lp1; lp2; lp3 (mean wave length partitions); th0; th1; th2; th3 (mean wave direction partitions); si0; si1; si2; si3 (directional spread partitions); ws0; ws1; ws2; ws3 (wind sea fraction partitions); wsf (wind sea fraction); pnr (number of wave partitions); dtd (dynamic time step); uust; vust (eastward, northward friction velocities); cha (Charnock coefficient); faw (wind to wave energy flux); utaw; vtaw (eastward, northward wave supported wind stress); utwa; vtwa (eastward, northward wave to wind stress); wcc (whitecap coverage); Sxx; Syy; Sxy (radiation stress components); utwo; vtwo (eastward, northward wave to ocean stress); uuss; vuss (eastward, northward surface stokes drift). Please note that the licensee/user is required to acknowledge the source of this data on the following terms: 'Source: Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO © 2013'. Apart from dealings under the Copyright Act 1968, the licensee shall not reproduce (electronically or otherwise), modify or supply (by sale or otherwise) this data without written permission. Please contact CSIRO CSIROEnquiries@csiro.au or BoM climatedata@bom.gov.au for more information. Lineage: The hindcast was performed using the WAVEWATCH III(TM) model, 1970 - May 2013 used version 4.08, June 2013 onward used version 4.18. The model was run on a 0.4 x 0.4° global grid with a series of nested grids of 10 arcminutes (~18km) down to 4 arcminutes (~7km) in the Western Pacific and Australian regions. Wave spectra were discretised over 29 frequencies exponentially spaced from 0.038 Hz to 0.5 Hz and 24 directions with a constant 15° directional resolution. For 1979 - 2010 all grids were forced with Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) surface winds at 0.3° spatial and hourly temporal resolution. For 2011 onward all grids were forced with Climate Forecast System Reanalysis v.2 (CFSv2) surface winds at 0.2° spatial and hourly temporal resolution. Hourly sea ice concentrations from the CFSR and CFSv2 data sets for the respective time periods were also used to define the ice edge. Data output in NetCDF4 format.

CAWCR Wave Hindcast pre-June 2013 ERRATA Issued 21/09/2020. Wave data pre-June 2013 was created with an early release of WAVEWATCHIII (v4.08). Note that pre-June 2013 variable 't' should not be used. Pre-June 2013, Variable ‘t’, named mean wave period using the first spectral moment is a duplicate of variable ‘tm0m1’ mean wave period using the first inverse spectral moment. Post-June 2013 (inclusive), Variables ‘t01’ represent mean wave period using the first spectral moment, and ‘t0m1’ represents mean wave period using the first inverse spectral moment with no issues. Several other variable names changes took place during the upgrade.

Surface weather observations are recorded half hourly, primarily from aerodromes with some additional data coming from unmanned automatic weather stations. In special conditions, observations may be …Show full descriptionSurface weather observations are recorded half hourly, primarily from aerodromes with some additional data coming from unmanned automatic weather stations. In special conditions, observations may be made earlier and for cost savings, some stations may only report hourly. The following data are recorded: datetime, id_num (WMO index number, normally a unique id, but can be missing), id_name (abbreviated name, used to identify the observing site), date, time, wdir (wind direction, degrees from N), wspd (wind speed, knots), t_db (temperature dry bulb, degree C), dp (dew point, degree C), qnh (aircraft altimeter setting, hPa), rf9am (rainfall since 9am, mm), rf10m (rainfall last 10 minutes, mm), vic (visibility, m), avis (automatically measured visibility, m), gust (maximum wind gust last 10 minutes, knots), wx1int (first (most important) present weather intensity), wx1dsc (first (most important) present weather qualifier), wx1wx1 (first (most important) present weather type), wx1wx2 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx1wx3 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx2int (second (less important) present weather intensity), wx2dsc (second (less important) present weather qualifier), wx2wx1 (second (less important) present weather type), wx2wx2 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), wx2wx3 (additional weather type for mixed precipitation), cld1amt (lowest cloud layer amount), cld1typ (lowest cloud layer type), cld1typ (lowest cloud layer base, m), cld2amt (second cloud layer amount), cld1typ (second cloud layer type), cld1base (second cloud layer base, m), cld3amt (third cloud layer amount), cld3typ (third cloud layer type), cld3base (lowest cloud layer base, m), cld4amt (fourth cloud amount), cld4typ (fourth cloud layer type), cld4base (fourth cloud layer base, m), ceil1amt (lowest cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil1base (lowest cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), ceil2amt (second cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil2base (second cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), ceil3amt (third cloud layer amount measured by ceilometer), ceil1base (third cloud layer base measured by ceilometer, m), rotation (required for rotation of wind barbs in MapServer), rh (relative humidity, %), stn_name (full station name). A record of the last 24 hours is available for each station. Information about codes can be found at [ http://www.bom.gov.au/weather-services/about/IDY03100.doc ].