Weather station at Dominic College

Students, families and the broader Glenorchy community like to keep an eye on the meteorological forecasts, as well as the mountain and clouds on the horizon.

Now they have just the right technology and resources to do so, thanks to the financial support of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mrs Elise Archer, and Mr Will Hodgman’s Premier’s Department.

The latest development at Dominic College consist of a weather station on site, a webcam to display live views of Mt Wellington/kunanyi and a student Meteorological Club.

The weather station is a compact facility mounted on the Dominic College Boys’ Town building sending data wirelessly to a student accessible data hub below. It includes instruments to accurately record temperature, UV Index, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and barometric pressure.

Once the station and monitoring is operational students will establish a Meteorological Club through which they can analyse data from the Dominic College Weather Station and build their own mini-weather stations to take home to other locations.

It is expected that student home weather data will be sourced from a broad catchment area beyond Glenorchy and include Bagdad, Oatlands, New Norfolk, Collinsvale and Molesworth. Students will track the meteorological continuities and differences and seek to understand the causes of weather changes as well as make predictions.

Acting Dominic College Principal, Mrs Janine O’Hea said the weather station and webcam will allow students, and the wider Glenorchy and Hobart community, to watch our mountain remotely from another angle and learn from their observations.

“These facilities will not only be important for Dominic College’s Kindergarten-Year 10 Science program, but will hopefully bring a new and accessible weather watching portal for the growing community of Glenorchy residents who want to contribute to and participate in, the conversation about the weather.”

Year 7 students, Levi Dillon and Isabelle Selby, are looking forward to the Meteorological Club.

‘It’s a fun and practical way for students to get involved in science and learn more about the world,’ said Levi.

There will be links to the live view of the mountain on the Dominic College website www.dominic.tas.edu.au soon.