Cloud Free Night – new Australian weather forecast website
Cloud Free Night (www.cloudfreenight.com) is a new weather website developed by (myself) Robert Dahni (retired Meteorologist) with advice from Phil Hart.
Cloud Free Night (Cloud Forecasts for Australian Astronomers) is a non-profit online weather forecast information service, for the benefit of the Australian amateur and professional research astronomy community. It is unique in offering a comparison of the widely available forecasts from the United States GFS global model with higher resolution forecasts from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology ACCESS model.
Cloud Free Night provides forecast maps for specific Australian regions, and forecast meteograms summarising the 72 hour forecast for particular locations. The maps allow you to toggle between the GFS and ACCESS models at any point while the meteograms (time-series graphs) present detailed cloud information or a summary comparison of the two models.
Many thanks, Robert. It provides a much better indication of what kind of cloud we are dealing with , namely, low, middle and high and a real indication of where the wind direction is. Linking a weather pattern to not only predict if we are going to get viewing in is useful but it might help in explaining over time why we can get a freak pattern of excellent seeing.any thanks for your efforts and sharing the site.Regards, Eugene
Thanks so much Robert and Phil. I've felt lost in recent months without the old animated ACCESS models. Especially this time or year. ACCESS from your page showing clouds 10pm tonight, GFS all clear until much later. Will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
The amateur astro community should be very thankful.
Just want to add my recommendation that you check this site out - Robert has put a truck load of work into it.
We can no longer view BoM ACCESS model via Lawrie Rikus' CSIRO reasearch website, so this is now the only website where you can get cloud forecast data from the Australian BoM ACCESS model.
The ability to switch between and easily compare U.S. GFS and BoM ACCESS models is a huge advantage. But don't take my word for it.. try it yourself!
Thanks so much Robert and Phil. I've felt lost in recent months without the old animated ACCESS models. Especially this time or year. ACCESS from your page showing clouds 10pm tonight, GFS all clear until much later. Will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
The amateur astro community should be very thankful.
And last night shows why ACCESS is so valuable for Aussies. GFS (7Timer etc) showed Brissy clear until 3am, ACCESS clouding over after 10pm. Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to celebrate the clouds that appeared at 10pm
And last night shows why ACCESS is so valuable for Aussies. GFS (7Timer etc) showed Brissy clear until 3am, ACCESS clouding over after 10pm. Perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to celebrate the clouds that appeared at 10pm
I am assuming that the true weather is always going to lie somewhere between the ACCESS and GRS models
My experience over the years has been they all predict the generation and (generally) eastward drift of medium and high cloud really well.
Southeasterly onshore winds during the very humid SE QLD summer months are a roll of the dice, but ACCESS seems to have better resolution and modelling.
Agree will be interesting to see how they compare, so wise to have easier A/B swapping between GFS and ACCESS on the new site. The best situation for any extended upcoming astro session would be clear across the board for all available forecasts for sure.
Can this be extended to cover your neighbour in NZ please pretty please?
Cloud Free Night can include New Zealand because the Australian ACCESS model data extends just past 180E. We are currently completing a major website re-design primarily for better mobile device support. Please could you send me (rdahni@metvis.com.au) an email with your request and we can discuss how and when this could happen.
This looks really useful - but I'm not very good at interpreting time zones for the cloud maps - how do you find the local time in Melbourne when the time is given in EDT?
This looks really useful - but I'm not very good at interpreting time zones for the cloud maps - how do you find the local time in Melbourne when the time is given in EDT?
EDT is defined as Eastern Daylight (Savings) Time (Time Zone Abbreviation) which is the current local time for Melbourne displayed on the forecast maps.
