Weatherzone man wants to gift a ‘true local’ weather station to Douglas
WEATHER STATION
“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” Mark Twain, the famous American humourist, writer and entrepreneur once said.
But now another Mark – Mark Hardy, founder of the iconic Australian app and data service company Weatherzone – wants to do something about it, at least about the accuracy of local weather data and forecasts.
Mr Hardy is ready to install a professional weather station somewhere in Port Douglas or nearby, as soon as he can find the right site to put it on.
Data from the only official BoM weather station serving the Douglas region has come under some scrutiny and review in recent months because it is situated on Low Isles, surrounded by ocean, about 15 kilometres off Port Douglas.
The Low Isles station is an automated system more geared for latest weather observations and conditions of interest to boaties and the aviation industry, and does not reflect the often vastly different weather and rainfall on the mainland.
‘Truly local’ weather station
Entirely out of his own pocket, Mr Hardy wants to set up a station on the mainland in Douglas, costing about $30,000, so that locals and visitors alike can have access to more accurate and ‘truly local’ weather observations and conditions in the area.
This in turn would make for better local weather forecasts, to help them better plan their activities and lives.
He’s looking at areas of open land, most likely a privately-owned property, to install such a weather station.
“A big golf course or similar open grassy space,” Mr Hardy told Newsport, “where it’s quite open and grassy, where the wind gets in and there’s no obstacles for getting accurate rainfall, that kind of stuff.”
More relevant data
Mr Hardy’s proposed weather station will be just for standard observations, and not include rain radar – that’s already covered by a BoM radar high up on a hill near Cairns Airport, which has an approximate 300km radius.
“The key things are temperature, humidity, wind and rain, and we’d probably stick a sunshine one in as well; they’re pretty easy, cheap these days compared to what they were before,” he said. “Those are the main parameters to drive weather forecast models.”
Currently he’s talking to both the owners and operator of the Mirage Golf Course in Port Douglas, and the Nautilus Helicopters site on the Captain Cook Highway as possible locations for the permanent weather station.
Mr Hardy hopes all weather apps would eventually want to use the data from the proposed station – and importantly the public would have free access to it via Weatherzone.
“Initially it’d go to Weatherzone only, but I’d make it available to any other weather organisation that wanted access to it, including the Bureau of Met. The Bureau of Met would probably want to look at it over an extended period, to validate the quality of the data.”
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