Weather stations on farms

This project was developed to address a black spot in local weather information between Wagga Wagga and Corowa. Weather information is extremely important to farmers, as events such as frost, rain, spray damage and soil moisture can have a significant impact on farm profits. Funding from Murray LLS and Riverina LLS has allowed for six weather stations and moisture probes to be installed on farms in the Riverina. The locations of the six weather stations and soil moisture probes were chosen based on soil type and location, in order to give the best coverage possible in the RPI membership area.

The weather stations were installed in September 2015 and are located in Rand, Culcairn, Berrigan, Barooga, Lockhart and Henty. The information provided by the weather stations includes: rainfall, wind speed and direction, delta T and soil moisture graphs (30cm- 150cm). The data is logged in the field every 30 minutes and uploaded to the website using the mobile network, which is available here.

The soil moisture graphs show the depth and amount of moisture in the soil. From these graphs, it is possible to see the depth to which the crops are drawing moisture. After a rainfall event, the graphs also indicate how far down the profile the moisture has percolated.