Weather on the internet, using International Units

Riches Communications Newsletter

Issue 1, November 2002

In this issue:

- Weather on the internet
- Correct use of International Units
- Other web sites of interest

Weather on the internet

With a prolonged drought affecting much of Australia at the moment, it is timely to look at what weather resources are available on the internet:

The Bureau of Meteorology has a wealth of free information on Australian weather, with climate averages and forecasting being particularly useful in agriculture (the SILO page is the agricultural section but most of its data is from the main site). Starting with the state you are interested in, you can follow links to find information on forecasts, current observations or satellite photos. For a small charge you can purchase archived weather data such as rainfall or daily temperature for any of the many locations where the Bureau records weather.

Radar images can also be viewed at the Bureau web site. These images show rain-bearing clouds within a 256 km radius. There are a number of radar stations scattered around the country with most of them on the coast or in capital cities. However, there are inland radars at Mildura, Yarrawonga, Wagga, Moree, Charleville and Longreach - useful if it rains in the near future!

Other links:

The Weather Company - packages weather data for media use primarily, specialises in animations, pictures etc.

DPI Queensland - specialises in information on El Nino and the SOI

ABC Weather - good range of weather info and graphics

Correct use of International Units

It is common to see chemical rates or areas of land referred to with the units and symbols designated incorrectly. Australia follows the International System of Units, abbreviated to SI. The symbols used for International Units are standard and there are several guidelines governing their use.

- most symbols are written in lowercase (e.g. 'm' for metre, 's' for second). Exceptions include 'L' for litre (small L can be used but is difficult to distinguish in some typefaces) and any units named after people (e.g. 'V' for Volt, 'Pa' for Pascal)

- other non-SI units are accepted in Australia with the most important in agriculture being a hectare, symbol 'ha'

- there should be a space between a numeral and the symbol e.g. 500 kg, 100 L

- use 'per' when using the full word and a forward slash for symbols e.g. 100 grams per litre, 100 g/L (not grams/litre or g per L)

More detail on the correct use of International Units can be found in the 'Style manual: for authors, editors and printers' published by the Australian Government.

Other web sites of interest

Google - the best search page on the internet

Australian White Pages - every phone book in the country available and never out of date

Whereis Online - driving directions and maps