How to get climate data from the Bureau

Introduction

The Australian climate computer archive holds data from around 18,000 sites, both open and closed, including:

• About 7,000 rainfall sites which are 'open' and reporting.;
• About 2,000 open sites reporting other climate data, such as temperature, wind, evaporation; and more.

The Bureau has commenced a project to provide free access to historical climate (weather) data from these sites via Climate Data Online. The range of data available will grow over time.

If the data you require is not available online, it may be obtained from the Bureau as described below.
We also have a range of data packages available. Other climate data (CDs, DVDs, Publications).

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Information required from you

To obtain data, all requests must be in writing (email, fax, letter) to any of the Regional Climate Centres. Please remember to include the following information:

• Your full name.
• Your organisation, if any.
• Your postal address and/or email address.
• Your phone number and/or your fax number (so we may contact you to discuss your request).
• The station name and number of the site you require (available from the Weather Station Data page). If you are unsure, please supply the area or location of interest so we can do a station search for you.
• Data required (eg. rainfall, temperature, etc).
• Time period required.
• The frequency of data (eg. monthly, daily, hourly).
• The data format you prefer (eg. text, pdf)

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Charges

A charge is made for the provision of climate information, other than for very simple requests. The charge will depend on the complexity of your request and the time and resources required to service it.

Once we know details of the request, we will supply you a quote. However, we won't begin the work until you have accepted the quote and provided us with payment details.

In all cases, we are obliged to ask for prepayment before we service the request. Payment may be by Bankcard, Mastercard, Visa, American Express (available at some offices only), cheque or by purchase order number. We cannot accept Diners Club cards.

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