A Tasmanian family has been recognised for their remarkable contribution to Australia’s weather records.
For a full century, the Nichols family has recorded daily rainfall data from their Richmond property, Brookbank.
Spanning four generations, the family’s meticulous efforts have earned them a prestigious 100-Year Bureau of Meteorology Excellence Award.
Richie Nichols accepted the award on behalf of his family from Governor Barbara Baker at Government House on Monday.
“The records basically finish at nine o’clock in the morning,” he said.
“We go out and measure the rainfall – we’ve got a gauge – then we record that in a book and then we enter those into the BOM website.”
“And we do that every day.”
Chantal Donnelly from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) praised the Nichols family’s exceptional contribution.
“It is obviously hard for one person to do on their own for 100 years,” she said.
“While the Bureau does have a number of automated weather stations around Australia, Australia is a vast country and it’s simply not enough for us to get a really accurate picture of rainfall across the country.”
Over 4,600 volunteers, including the Nichols family, provide crucial supplementary information to the BOM.
Donnelly said there are many diverse applications of rainfall data, including simulating water flow into rivers, understanding climate trends, managing riverine water resources and predicting floods.
