Bureau of Meteorology (Australia)

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The Bureau of Meteorology is an Executive Agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together the state meteorological services that existed before then. The states officially transferred their weather recording responsibilities to the BoM on 1 January 1908.

Services and structure

The Bureau of Meteorology is the main provider of weather forecasts, warnings and observations to the Australian public. The Bureau distributes weather images via radiofax and is responsible for issuing flood alerts in Australia.

The bureau's Head Office is in the Melbourne Docklands, which includes the Bureau's Research Centre, the National Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre and the National Climate Centre, as well as Hydrology and Satellite sections.

Regional offices are located in each state and territory capital. Each Regional Office includes a Regional Forecasting Centre and a Flood Warning Centre, and the Perth, Darwin and Brisbane offices also house Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres. The Adelaide office also incorporates the National Tidal Centre and the Darwin office the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is responsible for tropical cyclone naming for storms in waters surrounding Australia. Three lists of names are maintained, one for each of the western, northern and eastern Australian regions.

The regional offices are supported by the National Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre (NMOC) external site which is also located at the head office in Melbourne Docklands.

The Bureau maintains a network of field offices across the continent, on neighboring islands and in Antarctica. There is also a network of some 500 paid cooperative observers and approximately 6,000 voluntary rainfall observers.

Former Directors

• Henry Ambrose Hunt - 1908 to 1931
• John Zillman - 1978 to 2003

See also

• The Weather Company, another Australian weather service provider

References

External links

• Bureau of Meteorology main page
• Federation and Meteorology: the history of meteorology in Australia

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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 08:20:06 PDT (GMT -0700)
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