ORANGE needs official rainfall figures to be recorded from its centre, and a closer radar station to accurately predict weather events in the township, according to some of its dedicated rain gauge owners.
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The torrential downpour on Saturday highlighted the discrepancy between rainfall readings when Orange Airport, where most of Orange’s weather observations are recorded, measured just 26 millimetres.
Other stations displaying 24-hour rainfall figures recorded up to 110 millimetres.
Trinity Place resident Ray Moffat said his rain gauge measured 104.5 millimetres and argued the figure was more relevant to Orange residents than a station located several kilometres away.
“Let’s say during a storm, there was somebody whose roof was damaged. They would need some sort of record of what rain fell so they could prove to the insurance company it was a genuine claim,” he said.
“We had an overflow once and we had to prove how much we had.”
Bletchington Street resident Shane Lear recorded 62 millimetres and agreed a closer weather station was appropriate.
“The official readings are always so much different to what’s in town,” he said.
“I would have thought they’d put one on the council building.”
Bloodwood Wines owner Stephen Doyle, who recorded 68.4 millimetres on Saturday, said on-site monitoring was essential to regulate irrigation.
He said a radar station was needed because Orange’s radar readings came from Terrey Hills and the need for the signal to be beamed across the Blue Mountains sometimes created inaccuracies in when and how hard storms would hit.
“When you’re 256 kilometres from the source, it’s not as accurate as 60 kilometres,” he said.
“It would be great to know when storms will hit for preparation, to make sure electronics are stable and generally batten down the hatches.”
Bureau of Meterology observations and infrastructure acting deputy director Bruce Forgan said many weather observation stations had moved from town locations to airports and aerodromes, mainly due to urban development.
“Changes in built infrastructure can mean that the site was no longer available, or had become compromised by surrounding buildings,” he said.
Orange’s 24-hour rainfall readings can be found at www.bom.gov.au/nsw/flood/centralwest.shtml.
danielle.cetinski@fairfaxmedia.com.au.
