The new radar dish planned for North-Central Victoria will take the number of Weather Watch radars in Victoria to four. The new radar will cover an area bisected by the Murray River which is not covered by existing Bureau radars at Mildura, Melbourne and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. More than 50 radars now make up the Bureau network, which almost completely covers the Australian coastline. It is particularly valuable for regions subject to severe thunderstorms, heavy rain and tropical cyclones. The new C-band radar operates by transmitting powerful pulses of microwave energy.
Microwaves hitting raindrops rebound back to the radar site.
The microwave beam sweeps around 360 degrees, travels 200 to 300 kilometres, and has a wavelength of five centimetres. This information is transmitted to the Bureau's head office in Melbourne and, as with all Bureau radars, it is then made available as an on-screen display to all forecasting desks. The image is updated every 10 minutes. Users of these web pages are deemed to have read and accepted the conditions described in the Copyright Notice and Disclaimer .