Bureau of Meteorology graph showing weather extremes.
The Bureau of Meteorology is developing a new climate forecast tool, which is expected to be useful for agriculture.
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The web-based tool was demonstrated in prototype form at Murray Dairy’s recent Murray Muster conference at Yarrawonga.
Farmers will be able to input their district and time period to extract information on projected rainfall and temperature variations, and see how that compares to historical data.
Users can input their commodity type, for example ‘dairy’, and receive customised information.
Climate projections include a confidence score to assess the likelihood of the data being accurate.
The dairy commodity section is expected to include a THI (temperature-humidity index).
The presentation by BOM customer engagement co-ordinator Stephanie Dickson outlined the new tool, and invited feedback from farmers.
She backgrounded her presentation with a summary on the trends of climate change.
At Tatura, a temperature chart shows a gradual increase in the number of extreme heat days since 1990.
At Yarrawonga, for example, the district is experiencing a reduction in rainfall in recent years during autumn and winter, with a slight increase in summer.
Ms Dickson said the general warming trend was continuing.
“Australia's climate has warmed on average by 1.47°C since 1910, leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events,” she said.
“There has been an increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of the country since the 1950s, especially in southern Australia.”
There has been a decline in rainfall across the April to October growing season across southern Australia, Ms Dickson said.
Stephanie Dickson from the Bureau of Meteorology spoke at the recent Murray Muster.
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