There is a great saying which has been attributed to Mark Twain – ‘Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get’ – which very simply sums up the relation between the two words.
Developing a good understanding of climate and weather is one of the most important things a farm manager can do to help make good management decisions and minimise the risks associated with adverse weather conditions and a changing climate.
Fortunately, there is a vast amount of freely available information which makes it much easier to learn about climate and weather.
Most of this information is sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and can be accesses via the www.bom.gov.au website.
The best place to start developing a better understanding of the climate and weather is to learn about your local conditions by looking up the historical records.
Many farms already have good records of rainfall which can be very valuable.
Comprehensive records are available on the BOM website for all weather stations in Australia (www.bom.gov.au/climate/data).
All you need to do is find the nearest weather station to you on the map on this site and then bring up the monthly climate statistics.
This data will help you to understand the seasonal rainfall, temperature and wind conditions for each month.
Historical records are a guide to what will probably happen in the future, but remember there can be a lot if variability from year to year.
The next thing to do is to gain an understanding of the climate systems that affect us.
A detailed summary of these can be found on the BOM site (www.bom.gov.au/climate/about).
An excellent animation called the Climate Dogs which does a great job of demonstrating some of the main climate and weather systems can be found on the Climate Kelpie website (www.climatekelpie.com.au/understand-climate/climatedogs).
An understanding of these systems and how they interact will help you interpret and understand weather maps and apply this information to making decisions about activities on the farm.
Climate change and its causes are a major challenge facing agriculture now and in the future.
Even minor changes in climate could have major long term affects and make some farming enterprises unviable in the long run.
Climate change will affect areas differently and it is difficult to make generalisations.
What is likely is that we will have more extreme weather events like droughts, floods, heatwaves and cold snaps.
A good place to start researching the possible effects of climate change on you farm is to visit the CSIRO Climate Change in Australia website (www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/en/) and use the tools available to explore.
If you would like to go further with developing a climate risk management plan for your farm, the NSW Department of Primary Industries AgGuide publication ‘Managing Climate Risk On Your Farm’ will guide you through the process.
