Storm brews over Busselton weather reports

The Bureau of Meteorology has no plans to replace Busselton’s weather station, despite claims that weather recordings for the area are inaccurate.

Busselton “town” weather station, which was located near the Busselton Hospital site, was closed in 2011 during upgrades as relocation could not be funded.

The bureau currently uses data from a Busselton airport station 8.3km from the town which can provide data ranging over several degrees Celsius.

Whicher Heights farmer Vern Bussell said the loss of accurate weather recordings was a slight on Busselton.

“The airport is 8km from Busselton,” Mr Bussell said.

“I live the same distance out (from the airport) and there is a large difference between what I record and what the airport records … differences of several degrees

“It might seem like a small thing, but for a tourist town, for a farming area and for community that loves to fish we need accurate reporting of the weather and winds from the beachfront.”

Mr Bussell said Busselton’s weather reporting was “disgraceful”, and if it was only a matter of a couple of thousand dollars to replace the station he would even consider funding it himself.

But Ian Charlesworth from the Bureau of Meteorology said the cost of a full automatic weather station, which was all the bureau installed now, was about $50,000 just for purchase and set up.

“That’s before maintenance and upkeep … even if those funds were found, it is incredibly difficult to find a suitable location within a populated area,” Mr Charlesworth said.

“The area needs to be free of air-flow restrictions to be effective, and no amount of money can achieve that.”

Mr Charlesworth said many of the other regions were in a similar position as weather stations were increasingly located out towards airports.

“There are only minor differences between Busselton town and the readings we’re getting from the airport,” he said.

“It doesn’t affect the accuracy of our forecasting at all.”

The Bureau of Meteorology gathers information from numerous sources, including radar, satellite, ship and computer modelling.

“Because we’ve got inputs from so many sources, we are only getting increasingly accurate information over time,” Mr Charlesworth said.

Wind data is currently monitored from the Busselton Jetty.