Weather Station and Soil Condition Network
The Tasman catchment has distinct microclimates that are not represented by the BOM weather station data at Dunalley and Tasman Island. This project involves installing a weather station and soil condition probe network in the Tasman catchment to provide accurate real time and historic weather data more representative of our different regions.
Four weather stations and associated soil probes will be installed in Saltwater River, Premaydena, Koonya and Dunalley.
The weather stations will enable trials to show the impact of different farming practices on productivity, soil moisture and soil temperature.
The following trials have commenced:
Saltwater River - Sustainable rotational grazing vs regenerative agriculture grazing (sheep).
Koonya - Sustainable rotational grazing vs regenerative agriculture grazing (sheep and cattle).
Dunalley - dryland versus irrigated production trial (pasture)
Currently four weather stations have been installed and are operating in Premaydena (IPREMA3) Saltwater River (ISALTW2), Koonya and Dunalley.
The real time weather data can be viewed at:
https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap - currently two sites with access to real time and historical data
www.weatherlink.com/map - all four sites with access to real time data only
and the sites are also available as apps:
https://www.wunderground.com/download
weatherlink available on apple/google app store.
Rainfall and other weather information will be continually updated to build up a picture of the different patterns around the catchment and how these are changing with the impact of climate change.
| location | year | jan | feb | mar | apr | may | jun | jul | aug | sep | oct | nov | dec | tot |
| premaydena | ave | 63.8 | 54.9 | 65.2 | 73.5 | 76.4 | 91.7 | 86.4 | 85.0 | 64.6 | 79.4 | 68.2 | 74.8 | 883.9 |
| 2021 | 16.5 | 43.9 | 112.8 | 96.0 | 29.2 | |||||||||
| 2022 | 56.9 | 7.4 | 30.5 | 19.3 | 80.5 | 69.1 | 54.6 | 100.3 | 78.2 | 49.5 | 50.3 | 71.9 |
668.5 |
|
| 2023 | 15.5 | 67.3 | 27.7 | 64.5 | 58.7 | 60.0 | 13.7 | 13.7 | 11.4 | |||||
| saltwater river | ave | 63.8 | 54.9 | 65.2 | 73.5 | 76.4 | 91.7 | 86.4 | 85.0 | 64.6 | 79.4 | 68.2 | 74.8 | 883.9 |
| 2022 | 56.2 | 6.2 | 33.6 | 21.6 | 86.4 | 85.4 | 45.6 | 57.8 | 71.8 | 68.1 | 97.5 | 82.5 | 712.7 | |
| 2023 | 17.3 | 52.3 | 30.8 | 72.7 | 32.3 | 23.6 | 17.0 | 19.3 | 18.5 |
The data from the weather stations is also being incorporated into NRE's model of air temperature, rainfall and growing days that is published on LISTmap:
This project was funded by an Australian Government National Landcare Program Smart Farms Small Grants