View our introductory video to the Nowcast Tool here.
[Update 27 Feb 2014] Nowcast Launched! Trial BOM service
Following the stakeholder consultation phase, the trial service is now launched consisting of the following:
- Web Map Service (capable of being imported into Water Authorities GIS platforms and/or raw data automatically stored by the Utilities)
- Web interface with “lite” visualisation capabilities (BOM hosted portal)
- Web interface to download select raw data (BOM hosted short term repository)
The website can be found here.
The results of the stakeholder consultation work is summarised in “Nowcast Survey Results of User Needs” and “Initial Nowcast product List” proposed for the trial. As part of this project we are seeking feedback from the Victorian Water Industry over the next 6 months to help improve the service and to determine whether this service would be valuable to the industry. Please contact Jessica Yeung ([email protected]) or Ian Monks ([email protected]) if you would like further information or would be interested in partaking in the next scheduled stakeholder workshops with BOM.
Project Overview
This is a collaborative project between Smart Water Fund and Bureau of Meteorology in developing a prototype system to deliver “Nowcast” data. The Bureau’s nowcasting technology provides high spatial resolution radar rainfall estimates and short duration rainfall forecasts for either the next 90 minutes or 6 hours, which are called nowcasts. The rainfall forecasting software was developed jointly by the Bureau and the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office (Met Office), the technology is state of the art. It is used by the Met Office as part of their flash flood warning system and is licenced in six countries.
The water industry has needs for these new nowcast product data in their operations, including predicting flood and adverse events in planning emergency response. The broader objectives of this project is to develop and strengthen relationships between the Bureau and the Victorian Water Authorities. The expected outcome of this project will be the delivery of a prototype system that is ready to be transitioned into an operational service to the Smart Water Fund stakeholders that is based on the Bureau’s operational radar rainfall estimation and nowcasting technology. It is also anticipated that the water authorities will develop in parallel to this project means to operationalise the service.
The project was kicked off in November 2013. There will be an initial phase of consultation with the water industry to understand the best delivery mechanism and data format. Following this the BOM will implement the trial service, which is expected to run for 6-12 months depending on rainfall conditions. A trial web based visualisation platform is also to be developed as part of this project, which can be accessed by all water authorities. Throughout the trial BOM will work with the water industry to refine the service.
