Climate outlooks and weather

We provide seasonal climate outlook information, historical climate data and climate change projections for Queensland.

Seasonal climate outlook information

We produce a monthly climate statement based on information from a number of sources including national and international climate agencies. In particular, we monitor the current and projected state of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation referring to information such as:

• the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)
• Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures.

We provide climate outlooks using:

• the SOI-Phase system, which produces seasonal rainfall probabilities for the coming 3-month period, based on ‘phases’ of the SOI. Stone, R.C., Hammer, G.L and Marcussen, T. (1996) Prediction of global rainfall probabilities using phases of the Southern Oscillation Index. Nature, 384, 252-255.
• the experimental Seasonal Pacific Ocean Temperature Analysis version 1 (SPOTA-1) system, which monitors Pacific Ocean sea-surface temperatures from March to October, providing long-lead summer (November to March) rainfall outlooks for Queensland. A password is required to access SPOTA-1 information (email Rouseabout@des.qld.gov.au).

Weather outlooks

The Bureau of Meteorology provides access to weather forecasts, severe weather warnings, observations, flood information, marine and high seas forecasts, seasonal outlooks and climate information. Products include weather charts, satellite imagery, radar imagery and historical climate data.

Historical climate data

The SILO climate database contains daily meteorological data for a wide range of meteorological variables and formats. Daily data are available dating back to 1889.

There are 3 SILO datasets available:

1. time series at the point locations of 4800 meteorological stations across Australia (patched point datasets)
2. interpolated 5km spatial gridded surfaces
3. time series at any pixel location in the gridded surfaces (data drill datasets).

The patched point time-series are continuous datasets with any gaps infilled by interpolation from surrounding stations. The grids are also derived through interpolation of observations from the point station network.

SILO datasets for all Australian locations are free of charge and can be downloaded through the SILO website (or simple API) as timeseries data formats for single location ready for various crop and pasture simulation models, or spatial/temporal data formats for all Australia.

Climate change projections data

We also provide access to daily meteorological data from climate change projections for 2030 and 2050 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report suite of climate models.

Data is available as daily time-series in a format suitable for most biophysical models, including crop and pasture models. These data are derived from the Consistent Climate Scenarios project, a joint project with the CSIRO.