September 6, 2016
Organisers of this year’s high school formals and Christmas carnivals should begin preparing now for wet weather events.
And South Burnett farmers who plan to harvest a crop between November and January could be disappointed with the results.
Long range weather forecaster Hayden Walker told an audience of about 55 people in Wooroolin on Tuesday afternoon that while rainfall in the Kingaroy district should be light to moderate in October, things will rapidly get much wetter between November and January.
Hayden, who generates weather forecasts from observations of sun spots and solar flares, claims an average accuracy rating of 75 per cent.
And after 23 years in the business, his company Walkers Weather has clients all over Australia – ranging from farmers to large corporations – who are happy to pay for his long range forecasts.
Hayden was invited to give a free public talk about his methods at Wooroolin Hall on Tuesday afternoon by sponsors BGA AgriServices, BIEDO and the South Burnett Regional Council.
Mayor Keith Campbell, who compered the event, said he and his wife Marion first become acquainted with Hayden and his wife Fiona several months ago when both couples were staying at the same Brisbane hotel.
They thought it would be good to have him come to the South Burnett to explain his methods and provide a quick seasonal outlook, and BGA AgriServices and BIEDO agreed.
Guests came to Tuesday’s talk from all over the region and sat quietly for 30 minutes while Hayden explained the influence of sun spots and solar flares on the Earth’s climate, and how his company used observations of sun spot activity to predict weather changes.
While he stressed no method of weather forecasting was ever 100 per cent accurate and the science was constantly evolving, his own accuracy rate was still significantly better than other weather forecasting systems.
So he was happy to continue applying the techniques his father Lennox Walker had learned from pioneer long-range weather forecaster Inigo Jones, and then continued to improve on, over the course of the last century.
Hayden said these days his company uses computers and modelling software to crunch regular sun spot observations with historical weather data.
These observations are then judged against cyclical weather trends to determine final forecasts.
Hayden predicts that in the South Burnett, September and October will see “light to moderate rains”.
Hoewever, this will change to “good to heavy rains” for the three months from November to January, before the wet weather begins to soften in February and March.
Hayden said he expected to see falls of between 400mm to 600mm in coastal regions during the wet months, dropping to between 100mm to 200m inland, and warned this could produce flooding at times when the soil became saturated.
For listeners hoping for a freebie, Hayden also advised them to follow his LinkedIn page.
Each month he publishes a free national weather outlook there.
External links:
- Related article: Free Talk By Famous Forecaster
