Devonport Airport has mistakenly claimed the titles of both the hottest and coldest place in Australia this month after faulty equipment produced wildly inaccurate temperature readings.
Bureau of Meteorology data showed the north-west Tasmanian city recording a temperature of -9.8 degrees at 7:03am on Monday, before rocketing to a scorching 51.2 degrees just 36 minutes later.
The bizarre readings, which would have set new temperature records for Tasmania, were published on the bureau’s website and third-party weather services including Weatherzone before being identified as incorrect.
A bureau spokesperson confirmed the readings were incorrect and attributed the fault to damaged equipment.
“The reading of 51.2°C at 7:39am at the Devonport Airport automatic weather station in Tasmania is incorrect,” a spokesperson told Pulse.
“Our team are aware of this and are currently investigating.”
“A suspected power surge at the airport has resulted in damage to the temperature sensor.”
The bureau has since removed the incorrect data from its website, though it will remain in official records with appropriate notations.
The incorrect figures still remain as ‘extremes’ for the month on third-party weather websites at the time of writing.
The bureau said such equipment failures do not compromise its broader forecasting capabilities.
“The bureau’s forecasts and warnings are not impacted by this erroneous reading and continue to be published on the bureau’s website and on the BOM Weather app,” the spokesperson said.
“The bureau’s weather forecasts and weather warning service has been designed so that it is resilient and not dependent on any one piece of equipment.”
The spokesperson said weather predictions rely on multiple data sources including satellites, automatic stations, radars and rain gauges.
