News
New replacement radar set to give Perth better weather information
Bureau of Meteorology
BAMOS October 2021
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( Serpentine ) weather radar at 64km , 00:30 UTC on Monday 11 October 2021 before it goes offline for approximately three weeks for upgrade works that will maintain and enhance its operational capabilities . © Bureau of Meteorology .
Work to replace the existing Perth ( Serpentine ) weather radar is now underway . The update will give Western Australians access to more reliable and up-to-date weather information .
From Monday 11 October , subject to any Covid-related delays , the Bureau of Meteorology will begin the first stage of works to install new mains electrical wiring and fibre-optic communications at the site south-east of Perth .
The radar is expected to be back online in early November , in time for Perth ’ s thunderstorm season .
Todd Smith , Manager for Hazard Preparedness and Response , said that after the thunderstorm season the work would restart , enabling installation of the new tower and radome well before the start of autumn rains in 2022 .
“ Thunderstorms , including severe ones , occur on average about twice a month in Perth and surrounds between November to January ," he said .
" For this reason , the work to upgrade the radar will be undertaken two phases : phase 1 in October , with phase 2 to follow in early 2022 .
“ There will be no impact on the Bureau ' s ability to accurately forecast or observe the weather in the Perth area while the radar is offline ."
" Users of the BOM Weather app will not notice much difference , with radar coverage provided from the Perth Airport radar ."
The Bureau ' s wide range of services including MetEye , which provides temperature , rain and wind information , will continue as normal .
Perth airport radar images will be available continuously on the Bureau ' s website .
The community can also access satellite images from the Himawari-8 satellite on the Bureau ’ s website , which shows cloud cover and lightning strikes .
Once complete , the community , emergency services and local industry will benefit from dual-polarised Doppler radar technology , one of the best tools for observing real-time rainfall and wind conditions across large areas .
The Perth radar is one part of a comprehensive weather observation network of over 11,000 assets including satellites , upper atmosphere monitoring , automatic weather stations , ocean buoys and flood warning networks .
This is part of the most significant program of upgrades to Australia ' s radar and observation network in a generation .
By June 2024 , the Bureau will deliver 8 new radars , plus upgrades to 46 radars , almost 700 automatic weather stations and 200 flood warning network sites across the country .