Dear Bureau of Meteorology,

I write to you in regards to the recent Cyclone's that have affected the Top End (Lam) and Queensland (Marcia), and the heavy rainfall that have occurred.  I have noted over the years, and even more so since the cyclones, that most Australian capital cities have an option on the way the radar information is displayed on the BOM.gov.au site.  The particular feature I am referring to displays the amount of rain that has fallen over different selected periods (6min, 1 hour, since 9am and 24 hours), in a high resolution map.  This feature is available in capital cities such as Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart.  This feature is not available at Perth or Darwin, and we, the signatories of this petition, are asking for this feature.  As it turns out, it isn't that we are the last two capital cities not to get this upgrade, as there are 3 other places that have it and are NOT capital cities.  Two of them are Newcastle and Wollongong, twice the size of Darwin, however, poplulation shouldn't be the key reason for this feature......but hang on....there is one more....it is Mount Isa.  If it was population based then surely we should have it by now.  As it is, Mount Isa has a population of 22,000 as of 2010.  Palmerston alone is 32,000 as of 2012, which is the fastest and largest growing area of Greater Darwin (population 132,000 as of 2012 census which includes northern suburbs, Palmerston and Litchfield), which helped Greater Darwin be the 2nd fastest growing city behind Perth.

Firstly, I'd like for the BOM to consider this petition as we are an area that get very high rainfall, particularly in small timeframes, and this rainfall can lead to localised flooding.  This flooding can cut roads, and thus lead to people being stranded, put lives at risk and disrupt transport and tourism. 

Secondly, considering that this feature is available at Hobart, which is important and I commend you for it, I find that it is more important to have this option enabled in Darwin.  I'm sure you know that the record monthly rainfall in Hobart is 250.7mm, while Darwin's 24 hour rainfall record is 367.6mm (46% more than Hobart's monthly record).  Just this should be enough to show the importance of this feature in Darwin. 

Thirdly, we also get cyclones which are the main contributing factor to heavy rainfall, this alone makes the BOM Darwin region of high importance, but as you know, it also has high importance in regards to SOI data, Volcanic eruption monitoring, and not to mention the city that is widely remembered as the one that got destroyed by TC Tracy, it is very surprising that the Darwin radar misses out on this rainfall feature considering it is held in high regard in so many other areas.

Lastly, we have a very rare, and widely renown phenomenon that occurs near Darwin that is barely covered by rain gauges, but highly studied by people world wide, including NASA.  The daily showing of Hector the Convector during the Wet Season.  Wouldn't it be fascinating to show the effects of Hector in a rainfall map.  This would benefit, not only the local community, but the scientific community.  To have a high resolution rainfall map of this rare and natural wonder, can only be done from Darwin.

 To sum up, we have the population, we have the heavy rainfall, we are a capital city, we get cyclones and we have Hector (he is very big, don't mess with him).

Please, Bureau of Meteorology, please enable this feature on the BOM.gov.au website.

Regards,

Palmerston Weather on behalf of all the followers on facebook, all the people of Darwin and surrounding areas and lastly, the people of the Tiwi Islands, the home of Hector.