Century of Obs

This was how Rex Clark in the NT News on March 21 this year began his story on weather obs. in the NT. His story continued:

Dr. Peel noted a temperature of 91 deg. and took wet and dry bulb readings which were recorded and are filed today on the record shelves at the Darwin Weather Bureau. In the 100 years of continuous observations since then, great strides have been made in weather forecasting with some of the world's most sophisticated gear installed here.

Regional Director Mr. Bob Southern said that Dr.Peel's equipment was carefully calibrated instruments from the Adelaide office. His observations were taken every three hours—the same as today—and recorded on sheets prepared in Adelaide.

Observations had been taken earlier in the Territory but only for short periods. Mean monthly temperatures are noted at Port Essington in 1834 at the early Territory settlement but the next statistics were noted at Escape Cliffs in 1865. Mr. Jacob Bauer made observations for three months and prepared a detailed comparison with readings at Melbourne.

Dr. Peel's weather watch was made on behalf of Surveyor-General George Goyder and he was given two assistants to carry out the readings. They continued with the work until 1871 when Postmaster J. A. Little assumed responsibility for the observations Post office staff took the readings until the building was destroyed by Japanese bombs on February 19, 1942, but figures were maintained unbroken at the aerodrome at Fannie Bay.

Rainfall reports continued at the post office until the job was taken over by the Bureau in 1947.

The article also noted that the highest temperature recorded in Darwin was 104.9 deg. on October 17, 1892—a low maximum by comparison with southern capitals. The lowest temperature was 50.7 deg. on July 29, 1942. Darwin's wettest month was February 1967 when more than 30.5 inches fell. The wettest year was 1910 when well over 87 inches were recorded.

Bureau of Meteorology