Since February 28, the Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) automatic weather station at Lismore Airport has not worked after it was severely damaged in the megaflood.

The Lismore App has received many enquiries in the last two months asking when it will come back online so they can once again look at the amount of rain that has fallen in the region at any given day or week or month. When areas are recording record rainfall totals for the first three months of 2022, there is no reading for Lismore.

(May's weather reading for Lismore to the 24th from the BOM website)

The Lismore App asked the BOM for some answers and received this reply from a spokesperson:

The Lismore Airport automatic weather station (AWS) was significantly impacted by the severe weather event in late February/early March.

The rebuilding of the AWS is nearly complete, and the Bureau expects observation data from the Lismore Airport AWS to be live on the Bureau's website in July 2022.

The Bureau of Meteorology's weather forecasts and warnings are not impacted by this outage. The Bureau draws upon a range of technologies including satellites, atmospheric, marine and ground-based observations and numerical weather prediction models to inform its forecasts and warnings.  

So, one more month to wait but we will never know what those Lismore totals were during and after our biggest flood and, what looks to be, our wettest start to a year in history. We will rely on those that have diligently recorded daily rainfall in our region.

On to the forecast, winter will bite for the first time this year when the mercury drops to about 6 degrees in the next two mornings with maximums hovering around the 17 to 21 degree mark although the westerly winds make it feel three degrees cooler. The winds should ease this evening.

There is the chance, and a 50% chance of rain on Friday evening otherwise partly cloudy days are ahead as the drying period continues.