Australian climate data

Leo A. Martin leo@possi.org
Sat, 17 Aug 2013 11:37:04 PDT
I don't recall seeing this mentioned here, but Australia has detailed climate
information available online at
http://www.bom.gov.au/
Scroll down to the blue panels under the words "Our Services" and click on "Climate and
Past Weather."

I wanted to see typical temperatures where Calostemma grows, so I clicked on "Weather
and climate data" about halfway down the page.

I stayed at the tab "Select using text" and at the top used the first scrollbox "Select
data about" and selected Temperature, Daily and Maximum.

I input a member's hometown into the "Select a weather station in the area of interest."
I unchecked the box "Only show open stations." After a while of database searching a
list of weather stations popped up.

I selected the first one, Nuriootpa Viticultural SA, and a graph opened showing me this
station has been reporting data from the late 1990s to present. (For rainfall data the
Angaston station has been reporting since the mid 1880s.)

I selected the year for which I wanted data in the scroll box and clicked on "Get data."
I was presented with a table of daily maximum temperatures in degrees C for this year.

You can also use the tab "Select using map." On the right is a scroll box "I would
like..." to choose which data you want. Then you can either click on the map to zoom
into a location or type the location in the box on the right. When you zoom in you will
see weather stations as small rectangles. Click on one and a balloon opens up offering
information on the station, a scroll box to select the year desired, and a link to the
data you selected.

Looking at the various data I learned Calostemma may receive rain at any time of the
year, but most falls during cool weather. Pat Toolan commented that during the summer
not enough rain would fall to penetrate to the bulbs. Summer high temperatures are
mostly around 100F / 98C and up to 105F / 41C. Summer nights cool considerably. There is
frost on a few nights in almost all years, but rarely below -2C / 28 F and the lowest
temperature in the last 5 years was -3.2C / 26F.

A great climate resource for growers of Australian plants.

Leo Martin
Phoenix Arizona USA




More information about the pbs mailing list