Updating the forecast
Our weather forecasts help you stay up to date with the weather and make decisions for your day and for the days ahead.
You may notice changes to a forecast during the day, such as for maximum temperature or chance of rainfall. These are forecast updates. We update the forecast regularly so that you have the latest information, to help you plan ahead.
Our routine public weather forecasts are now updated 4 times daily – that's every 6 hours. During severe weather or if there are significant changes to the forecast, we may issue more updates.
Aligning our forecast update times nationwide
We're improving how we issue our forecasts so that you have the most current information.
We've changed the update times of our routine public weather forecasts. We now update forecasts at the same time nationwide, instead of using local times for each time zone.
Instead of issuing a forecast, for example at 5 am local time in each state and territory, we issue forecasts at that the same time around the country.
You still get your forecast updates the same way on our website or the BOM Weather app, or through our registered user services. The format and content of your forecasts still look the same. This includes our local forecasts as well as our written forecasts for cities, towns, districts and coastal waters.
To align the times for all states and territories, we use UTC time, or Coordinated Universal Time. UTC is the global time standard used in meteorology and aviation. For example, if a meteorological observation is taken simultaneously across the globe at 12:00 UTC, it'll be 11 pm in Melbourne during daylight saving time and 9 pm in Tokyo.
Our 4 daily forecast issue times are now UTC 17:00, 23:00, 05:00 and 11:00 for all states and territories.
During Australian Eastern Standard Time, forecasts for New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria are issued one hour later relative to UTC time. This is because UTC does not change for daylight saving time, making it a consistent reference point year-round.
Issuing our forecasts at the same time nationwide allows us to update them more often. It means our forecast information is more consistent across our website, the BOM Weather app and other services. Consistent and timely weather information helps industry and emergency management across different states and territories.
The conditions in our oceans and atmosphere change all the time so we update our weather forecast regularly. We want to provide the most up-to-date and accurate forecasts possible to help you make your plans.