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Why are weather observations important?

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Observations of atmospheric humidity, pressure, temperature, wind speed, wind direction, cloud cover, precipitation, visibility, and other weather phenomena are vital for accurate weather forecasting.  

DTN APAC, a DTN company, offers the ObsConnect weather station. This provides exact, real-time monitoring of local weather and environmental data to inform your on-site operational decisions. 

Why are observations important? 

  • Observations can alert you or meteorologists of any adverse weather nearby. Exact real time monitoring of the weather can support operational intelligence. It can also improve decision making and provide important environmental information to your site teams.
  • They are critical for producing accurate weather forecasts. Weather forecast models work by taking current observations and extrapolating forward into the future. If your location has an observation station which can be used in the weather model’s forecast, it can help train the model and improve the accuracy of the forecast at your location.  
  • Observations are critical for assessing the accuracy of weather forecasts. Our model, Opticast™ adapts and updates every five minutes based on real time weather observations, and the latest guidance from a suite of Numerical Weather Prediction models. 

Weatherzone’s ObsConnect weather station 

Australia has a large network of observations, which are mostly located in major towns or cities. Weather can vary a huge amount from location to location. With changing topography and terrain, a weather station 20km away may not be a good representation of the weather you can expect at your location. 

Weatherzone has deployed its own network of weather stations across Australia, bringing accurate, site-specific weather data to you in real time. 

ObsConnect from DTN APAC, a DTN company, is a turnkey solution, comprising of three main components. These include the instrumentation / sensor package / suite, the ObsConnect IoT Gateway and the MetConsole Cloud data integration system. 

The expertly calibrated weather sensor package provides the precise observation required for validation of forecast modelling. This greatly improves Weatherzones Opticast™ Forecast at your site. 

The ObsConnect weather station will be installed and maintained by Weatherzone  offering reliability, maintenance support and ease of scalability. For more information, please contact us at apac.sales@dtn.com 

Latest news

Satisfy your weather obsession with these news headlines from around the nation, and the world.

High tropical cyclone risk near northern Australia this week

A tropical low currently developing over the Timor Sea has a high chance of becoming a tropical cyclone later this week, with a possibility of landfall somewhere in the Northern Territory or Western Australia. Key industries could be impacted including Ports, Mining, Transport, and Agriculture. The satellite images below show cloud circulating around the developing […]

Madden-Julian Oscillation increasing tropical cyclone potential for northern Australia industries

Sea surface temperatures exceeding 31°C off the coast of northern Australia and an active phase of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) are increasing the likelihood of early-season tropical cyclone activity, with hints of the season’s first tropical cyclone coming as early as next week. Tropical cyclones require sea surface temperature of 26.5°C or warmer to develop, […]

Tropical cyclone season begins with warm oceans surrounding northern Australia

The 2025-26 tropical cyclone season has begun with abnormally warm oceans surrounding northern Australia, signalling an increased risk for severe tropical cyclones in the coming months. The Australian tropical cyclone season runs from November 1 to April 30. During this six-month period, there are usually about 9 to 10 tropical cyclones in the Australian region, […]

7.8 million lightning pulses detected by DTN’s Total Lightning Network over Australia in one week

A barrage of thunderstorms battered large areas of eastern and northern Australia over the past week, producing close to 8 million lightning pulses across the country and more than 4 million over Queensland alone. DTN’s Total Lightning Network (TLN) detected around 7.79 million lightning pulses above Australia last week. This lightning was observed over every […]