BOM & Freo’s weather forecasts

I’m totally confused.

It’s just after 8.30 on a day it’s tipped to be around the max 34 deg mark all around Fremantle, after a few hotter ones recently.

Fremantle itself, according to BOM just now, is at a pleasant 30 degrees.

But South Fremantle, quite contiguous with Fremantle, is, according to BOM, 31.8 degrees.

How is that possible?

What you discover when you do a quick survey of BOM’s weather app is that there are a bunch of related locations between Swanbourne and Coogee along the coast on 30 deg, another bunch on 31.3 and another bunch on 31.8. How come there is such a difference?

Here are the 30s.

Here are the 31.3s.

And finally the 31.8s.

I’ve written to BOM asking where their weather stations are that record these temps? I am, though, fast coming to the view, suggested by a local who often has a weather finger to the breeze, that BOM just looks at its weather data from its instruments positioned at Jandakot and Swanbourne and then adds in some wind readings from Melville Waters and Coogee beach/Ammo Jetty area, and triangulates – that is to say, guesses – a result for a range of adjacent locations.

When you regard the above bunched readings for locations along the coast from Swanbourne to Coogee from just after 8.30 am this morning, you’ll see what I mean.

If you understand these things, please contact us and explain! Not sure we will ever hear from BOM. They don’t seem to answer their customers’ emails. Too busy guessing, oops, triangulating, one suspects.

By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News

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