What's the difference? Weather is the combination of atmospheric conditions that we're having now, will have next week, had last week or last month or in, say, January 1950. Use weather data to find how much rain fell last week or the top temperature on 1 January 2001. Use weather forecasts for a prediction of next weekend's weather.
Climate, on the other hand, takes a long view of atmospheric conditions at a place or in an area. Climatic descriptions, data and graphs look at averages and extremes to give an idea of what is normal and extreme at a location. Use climatic data to find the average rainfall for your place in June or the normal weather in Tasmania in March. Climatic forecasts make predictions of broad changes in weather in the decades to come. |
What's available here:
Daily weather data from the Bureau of Meteorology for the past year sorted by element (e.g. rainfall) or by station is available for every daily reporting station in Australia. This includes rainfall, maximum and minimum temperatures, wind averages and gusts, sunshine, evaporation, grass minimum temperatures and soil temperatures. Use the links in the green menu bar above, then click your area of interest. Follow the links on the district page for previous months data.
Daily rainfall and temperature data from the Bureau of Meteorology for all years of record is available for all stations, in some cases going back to the mid 1800s. Again, click the district you want on the map. While most of the rainfall data that has been recorded is available, temperature and other data is not widely available before the mid-1950s when the Bureau began to computerise its data. Prior to that, data is available for a few long-standing and reliable stations only.
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