Limestone Coast Mesonet Weather Station Network

Date: Monday 14th November 2022

By MFMG Admin

Project code:

Project manager: Damon Grace

Project duration: September 2022 to August 2024

Introduction

The COtL Mesonet is a high-resolution weather station network that is set to expand into SA’s south-east with 43 new high-spec weather stations. Funding of $2.25M was approved by the Minister for Primary Industries, Regional Development and Forestry, the Hon Clare Scriven.

Project Activities

The weather stations will be specifically designed to distinguish between hazardous and non-hazardous thermal inversions and display the data in real-time. This would help reduce pesticide spray drift damage and may also increase the number of sprayable hours for growers. Other useful weather data such as fire danger, rainfall, evapotranspiration and crop phenology metrics will also be displayed. This high-density network will be a boon for growers and communities who currently rely on weather gauges which are too far away. It should be noted that the only SA weather stations capable of detecting hazardous inversions in real-time are Mesonet weather stations.

The Rural Chemical Operations (RCO) group within PIRSA identified the Limestone Coast as the next biggest hot-spot for spray drift damage outside of the Mid North and the Riverland and Mallee. Langhorne Creek and McLaren Vale were also noted as having a high number of recorded spray drift incidents and are also included in this project.

Long-distance spray drift occurs when chemical pesticides drift many tens of kilometres before settling on a non-target crop such as a vineyard or over non-target areas such as natural ecosystems, residential gardens and/or rainwater tanks. This can lead to large economic losses for the non-target crop, and unknown health impacts for peri-urban residents.

The COtL Mesonet team has partnered with MacKillop Farm Management Group (MFMG) to deliver this infrastructure. This project will also upgrade and integrate many existing weather station networks in the region.

COtL have established and managed very similar networks in the Mid North, the Riverland and Mallee. The real-time website can be found at www.midnorthmesonet.com.au (requires a free Sign-Up). The Limestone Coast Mesonet would also display non-hazardous inversion detection, allowing for increases in sprayable hours compared to solely relying on inversion detection alone. Armed with real-time reliable spray drift hazard data, growers will be able to use their product more efficiently and productively. See image below showing expected locations.

Mesonet map.jpg