Ag sector can now see trends in monthly climate

National climate information tool, My Climate View, now includes the ability to compare past and projected monthly data for rainfall, and maximum and minimum temperatures.

The free digital tool has been updated to present the monthly data in a way that will help Australian farmers, their advisers and land managers gain more insight into their changing climate conditions.

Graham Bonnett, Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) Program Director, says the addition of the monthly data responds to users wanting more insights into how their seasonal climates are changing.

“We know that the changing climate is affecting farmers and land managers in different ways across the country,” says Graham, who also leads the Drought Resilience Mission for CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.

“The CSA team of climate, social and agricultural scientists have been working with the agricultural sector to understand how to best present the relevant seasonal climate information available through My Climate View.

“Showing the past and future rainfall and temperature trends within monthly data ranges allows users to see how their specific seasonal timeframes are shifting.”

My Climate View has been developed by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology as part of the Climate Services for Agriculture program and funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

It is unique among Australia’s agricultural weather and climate tools:

· it presents past and future climate information in one place

· it allows users anywhere in Australia to access commodity specific climate information at a 5 km2 grid around or across their properties

· it was designed based on feedback from farmers, agricultural advisers, and land managers, in combination with agriculture-climate science research

Feedback has been used to help develop the product, to understand how it can best support longer-term agribusiness risk management and adaptation planning.

My Climate View can be accessed at www.myclimateview.com.au

Below: Example of Monthly Rainfall data exported directly from MyClimateView for Ungarra.