Using AWN
AWN is a HUGE site (315,440 files as at 27/11/12) but finding your way around is easy if you follow this short guide.
- Use the menu and sub-menus at the top of each screen to go to AWN's main sections.
- Some pages that don't
have the menu bar at the top open in a new window.
- The main weather pages have a Links to other sites box that leads you to links to hundreds of relevant sites outside AWN.
- The site is best viewed at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or greater.
Finding what you want
- Forecasts: Weather warnings and forecasts for all Australia, Bureau 7-day OCF guidance forecasts for up to a week for over 600 locations, and computer model forecasts of rain and more.
- Current: The weather today and right now. Radar, lightning, satellite images, detailed rainfall maps, and weather readings from all Australian stations. AWN also presents a huge range of synoptic charts covering the whole world but with particular emphasis on Australia.
- Daily Weather Summaries: Charts, statistics and news stories give the most detailed national weather coverage available in one place for every day back to 1996. Today's is here.
- Recent & Climate: Rainfall, temperature and more for every Australian station going back to the beginning of weather records. Long-term averages, charts, climate change, El Nino.
- Severe: Current and past cyclones, floods, droughts, thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, snowstorms, bushfires, gales and high seas.
- Know-how: How the weather works; observing, analysing and forecasting the weather as well as tech stuff for those keen to expand their weather knowledge.
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Unless otherwise indicated, data and charts are provided by the  |
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Site news
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- 4 December 2013 - Site repair update. Two new computers have been put in service to replace one failed and one aging unit and both are now taking up part of the AWN workload. A backup computer is still in use for some routine operational work but, apart from periods when processing is being transferred from the backup to the new computers, there should now be few interruptions to normal services. With the additional capacity now available, I am confident enough to resume production of AWN's World Weather Maps, which are quite computer-intensive. There are still missing files in the site's archives, especially in the Daily Weather Summaries, but these will be filled over coming weeks.
- 13 November 2013 - Site repair update. I have taken delivery of new computer equipment to replace a unit that failed and another that is close to the end of its life. The process of commissioning these will take about a week after which site updating should return to normal and AWN's World Synoptic Charts will also be resumed. Correcting errors on the site (see 31 October entry below) is a long and tedious job and continues.
- 7 November 2013 - Site repair update. As of this evening, all of the archive files in the frequently-used Recent and climate section have been uploaded or recreated. Almost all of these files were lost in the migration process described below. I have also uploaded all of the main navigational files on the site to ensure they are the current versions. The next task is to upload all of the Daily Weather Summary files, including the various charts that appear in each day's summary. Those who use the DWS will have noticed that many charts and whole pages are missing. I take delivery of new computer equipment next week to replace the failed main server and, after about a week to set it up, the site should return to normal.
- 31 October 2013 - Site upheaval. Last Friday, 25 October, AWN's web server at our host company failed setting off the biggest string of technical problems the site has had to overcome since it began in 1995.
- The site was quickly migrated to a new server, but had to be configured and redelegated across the web, becoming operational on Monday. Unfortunately the migration could not be done cleanly with the result that there are many thousands of missing or outdated files. You will recognise these as you'll get the "Oops!!! page missing" warning.
- There are about 300,000 files on the site and they cannot be checked individually, so all files are either being restored from my own backup or recreated. Now is the time you learn how good your backup procedures are! In general I am giving priority to more recent files and working backwards.
- As if this wasn't bad enough, on Monday my primary weather data processing computer failed. This has shifted all routine data processing onto fewer computers at the very time I need more computer power to recreate the site. I have temporarily suspended production of the World Synoptic Charts to reduce the load, however there will also be times when I suspend routine data processing to make way for site recreation work. All pages normally produced, such as the OCF forecasts, will continue to be available, but there may be delays.
- New equipment to replace the failed computer is being sourced and will take a while to set up, but I hope to return the site to normality in a few weeks. I do thank all AWN's thousands of users for their patience during this difficult time.
- 17 September 2013 - Bureau issues statement on the exceptionally warm late winter and early spring temperatures. The last week of August and the beginning of September 2013 saw record high temperatures across a large part of the continent. This Bureau Special Climate Statement gives details and reasons.
- 9 August 2013 - World Weather Maps. All detailed maps for the Americas have now been completed. Only a few maps for Europe and the charts for ocean areas remain to be done before all the whole updated suite of global weather maps is complete.
- 24 July 2013 - Weather station location, information and data maps. These maps are designed to find out where weather and rainfall stations are, or to look for stations in a particular area of Australia or the world. You can click on any station to bring up current and historical data for that station. To access the maps go to the Current menu, then World Weather Maps, and the links are at the top of the menu on the left. Look at them directly now for Australia or the world.
- 24 July 2013 - World Weather Maps. The upgrade to AWN's World Weather Maps section is nearing completion with all Australian, Australian region, African, Asian and South American charts done. Most European charts have been upgraded and work is about to start on the remaining North American, ocean and polar charts.
- 9 July 2013 - World Weather Maps. Work on upgrading this large section of the site continues, with the latest hourly charts now available for ALL map areas - just click the green button (
 ) beside the area on the main menu on any chart. Areas are now available in the new format for all Australian charts, all continents and some of the more popular overseas countries.
- 18 June 2013 - World Weather Maps. The World Weather Maps section under the Current Weather menu is being substantially upgraded. It's being made simpler to use and easier to understand with hourly updates and a one-month archive for all charts. To my knowledge, this is the largest collection of surface synoptic charts available on the web and covers the whole globe in detail with particular emphasis on Australia. Upper charts have also been added. For more details of the upgrade, go to the main entry page.
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