Residents have called for rainfall to be recorded in the Orange urban area after readings from the official site at Orange Regional Airport were well below city reports this week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While residents across Orange had backyard gauge readings of up to 40 millimetres this week the official Bureau of Meteorology recording from 20 kilometres away at the airport was only 12.4mm.
And in the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday the airport recorded only 10.6mm while a secondary BoM site closer to town at the Orange Agricultural Institute on Forest Road showed 24mm.
It does make sense to have a rain gauge located that reflects more accurately the climate of Orange
- Neil Jones, president ECCO
Residents said the airport figure was not a true reflection of the amount of rainfall falling in Orange.
Beryl Pearce, who lives in west Orange, said the discrepancy had been an issue for years.
She said she and, now deceased, husband Don McCloskey, had been loss adjusters for people seeking insurance claims in Orange.
Mrs Pearce said insurance companies queried the reports as they pointed to airport rainfall figures being different to what had been stated as falling in the centre of Orange.
She said she had recorded 40mm this week, well above the airport reading.
"There is just such an imbalance," she said.
She suggested it could be placed at the Orange Post Office or as part of the EPA air quality reading site at Jaeger Reserve.
"It would be good to see [the BoM] have a second reading in town," she said.
Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Orange president Neil Jones said he and a neighbour in Orange had separately recorded about 35mm this week.
"It does make sense to have a rain gauge located that reflects more accurately the climate of Orange," he said.
"The airport doesn't do that.
"I'm sure ECCO would support a more central rain weather recording."
According to BoM figures, in the past three months Orange Airport has recorded 231mm of rain, which is 20mm less than at the Orange Agricultural Institute.
It also shows the mean annual rainfall at the airport is 26mm less than at the Agricultural Institute.
The Bureau of Meteorology was contacted for comment.
When the issue was raised in 2015 a BoM spokesman said rainfall recording had been moved out of town centres to airports because urban development was compromising the recordings.
HAVE YOUR SAY
- Send us a letter to the editor using the form below ...
David Fitzsimons
I am a senior journalist at the Central Western Daily concentrating on council, government and real estate issues. Before moving to Orange I filled senior roles at the Daily Telegraph, Daily Telegraph-Mirror and the Daily Mirror in Sydney. They included being an editor, news editor, chief of staff and reporter.
I am a senior journalist at the Central Western Daily concentrating on council, government and real estate issues. Before moving to Orange I filled senior roles at the Daily Telegraph, Daily Telegraph-Mirror and the Daily Mirror in Sydney. They included being an editor, news editor, chief of staff and reporter.
