New Australian AWS in Adelaide

Installation of a new Adelaide automatic weather station (AWS) will allow the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to recommence the collection of climate records at a site where their collation dates back more than 160 years. The new AWS is located in the Park Lands (a public park that rings the city centre) at West Terrace. “Pioneering meteorologist Sir Charles Todd started recording weather observations at this site in 1855,” said the Bureau’s state manager, John Nairn. “Globally, records of this length and quality are extremely rare and are significant in underpinning our understanding of Australia’s climate, its variability and trends. This will assist in planning for the community’s longer-term needs,” he added. Adelaide’s new AWS is one of more than 550 across Australia, and is the first capital city AWS with an Aboriginal co-name. “We considered the role of an automatic weather station and decided upon the Kaurna name, ‘Ngayirdapira’ which means ‘concerning the sky’,” said Kaurna elder Uncle Lewis O’Brien.