]Greg Hunt, MP
Joint Media Release
Greg Hunt MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage
Federal Member for Flinders
&
David Fawcett MP
Federal Member for Wakefield
23 November 2005
The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Parliamentary Secretary with ministerial responsibility for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Mr David Fawcett, Federal Member for Wakefield announced today that the Bureau will hold a series of Radar User Forums at its Adelaide offices to help the public understand how to use information available from the Bureau's weather radars.
The Radar User Forums are expected to help people make better use of the Bureau's free radar images on the Internet and will help demystify those occasions when it seems the radar images don't explain what is happening when you look out your window.
"The newly commissioned high resolution Doppler weather radar at Buckland Park fits neatly into the Bureau's network of weather radars across Australia. The radars help meteorologists detect and forecast significant weather so that loss of life and damage to property can be minimised," said Mr Hunt.
Federal Member for Wakefield David Fawcett said the advanced radar systems are critical in light of the floods which have just been through Gawler and Virginia.
"Multi-million dollar loss in the vicinity of $50m to the district including market gardens may next time be minimised through the capabilities of the Buckland Park radar".
Mr Fawcett added that the radar at Buckland Park is ideally positioned to monitor weather across Adelaide and the Mount Lofty Ranges and serves as the premier radar for the Adelaide region with the radar at Sellicks Hill providing excellent supporting data.
"High quality radar images assist forecasters to inform emergency services in the community to build a line of defence against potential crisis situations," Mr Fawcett said.
The Bureau's web site (www.bom.gov.au) is consistently rated one of Australia's most accessed web sites and regularly records more than 400 million hits a month. The radar pages on the site are the most popular part of the web site.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology will conduct two free Radar User Forums at the Bureau of Meteorology, 25 College Road, Kent Town. The first session will be held between 4:30-6pm on 30 November. The second between 10-11:30am on 1 December. Bookings are essential by contacting Paul Lainio at 08 8336 2640 or via email to P.Lainio@bom.gov.au
Media Contact:
Kristy McSweeney (Mr Hunt's office) 0415 740 722
Karen Petney (Mr Fawcett's office) 08 8523 0555