Giles Weather Station (also referred to as Giles Meteorological Station or Giles) is located in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

near the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

border, about west-south-west of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

and west of

Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...

. It is the only staffed weather station within an area of about and is situated mid-continent and near the core of the subtropical

jetstream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow air currents in the Earth's atmosphere. The main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are westerly winds, flowing west to east around the globe. The northern hemisphere and th ...

. This means it plays an important role as a weather and climate observatory for the country, particularly eastern and southeastern Australia, and particularly for rainfall predictions. The station is on the

Great Central Road The Great Central Road is a mostly unsealed Australian highway that runs from Laverton, Western Australia to Yulara, Northern Territory . It passes through a number of small communities on the way. It forms part of the Outback Way which goes ...

and the nearest township is the Warakurna Aboriginal settlement (population 180), North. Giles is within the

Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku The Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku is a remote local government area in Western Australia near the Northern Territory/South Australian border. It is from Perth. It was formed on 1 July 1993 following a report of the Local Government Boundaries Commi ...

and is in the foothills of the Rawlinson Ranges. A staff of three operates the remote station on four-monthly tours. Giles Airport, a airstrip services the station and the Warakurna community. Tourists are invited to watch the daily release of the

weather balloon A weather balloon, also known as a sounding balloon, is a balloon (specifically a type of high-altitude balloon) that carries instruments to the stratosphere to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind spe ...

at 8:45am Australian Central Time. Additionally there is a museum that visitors can browse, a remnant of the Blue Streak Rocket and Len Beadell's grader on display.

History

Giles is named after English explorer

Ernest Giles William Ernest Powell Giles (20 July 1835 – 13 November 1897), best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer. He led five major expeditions to parts of South Australia and Western Australia. Early life Ernest Giles was born in Bris ...

, the first European to travel through the area in 1874. Surveyor and roadbuilder Len Beadell, who worked for the Weapons Research Establishment (now known as the

Defence Science and Technology Group The Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) is a part of the Australian Department of Defence, which provides science and technology support to Defence and defence industry. The agency's name was changed from Defence Science and Technolog ...

), selected the site for a meteorological station in December 1955. It was needed to forecast weather conditions suitable for nuclear weapons testing at Emu Field and

Maralinga Maralinga is a desert area around large located in the west of South Australia, within the Great Victoria Desert. The area is best known for being the location of several British nuclear tests in the 1950s. In January 1985, in recognition of ...

. The location was strongly opposed by Walter MacDougall since it lay on tribal land. Beadell surveyed and built Giles Airport, and chose the name Giles during construction of the

Gunbarrel Highway The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It consists of about of washaways, heavy Corrugated road, corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway c ...

which links

Carnegie Station Carnegie station may refer to: * Carnegie Station, Western Australia, Australia; a pastoral lease * Carnegie railway station, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia * Carnegie station (Pittsburgh Regional Transit), Carnegie, Pennsylvania, USA See also ...

and Giles. Beadell's grader, which is estimated to have travelled over in the course of making the roads, was retired in 1963 and is preserved on display at Giles. Later, the weather station provided support for rocket testing programs at Woomera, as Giles was close to the centre-line of fire from the launch site. Wreckage from the first Blue Streak missile, launched from Woomera on 5 June 1964, is on display at the station. Docker River, north-east and just across the state border in the Northern Territory, was established by the government as an aboriginal settlement for local people in the 1960s. Overcrowding there and at Warburton created a need for a new community which became Warakurna in the mid-1970s. In 1972, control of the station was transferred from the Department of Defence to the

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Government of Australia, Australian Government that is responsible for providing Weather forecasting, weather forecasts and Meteorology, meteorological services to Australia a ...

. A ''

Landline A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

'' story in 2018 stated that Giles would soon become the last mainland regional weather station to be permanently staffed, with all the others being automated.

Climate

Giles Weather Station has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''BWh'') with very hot summers with irregular rainfall and mild, dry winters. Giles has high insolation, with 194.3 clear days and 3491.4 sunshine hours annually. Rainfall is highly variable; recorded annual values have ranged from in 1961 to in 2001. The periodic southward movement of the

monsoon trough The monsoon trough is a convergence zone between the wind patterns of the southern and northern hemispheres. It is a portion of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the Western Pacific,Bin WangThe Asian Monsoon.Retrieved 2008-05-03. and is dep ...

and ex-tropical cyclones cause heavy rain events in the wetter months from November to March. Dry spells often occur, particularly in winter; the longest period without rain was 156 days from 18 April to 20 September 1961.

References

External links

{{commons category, Giles Weather Station
Gazetteer of AustraliaGiles: Australia's most remote weather station
Meteorological stations Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku Bureau of Meteorology