About the Camera: The
camera is a VivoTek PZ6124 Pan Tilt Zoom Camera. It is on-line 24 hrs every day and uploads
every 30 Seconds, archives for the time-lapse are uploaded every 10 minutes. Gympie
is located at the centre of the picture, just behind the tree line before the
ranges, a distance of approximately 7 km.
The mountains in the background are the
foothills of the Great Dividing Range. During the Summer months Cumulonimbus Cells build up over these mountains and head for the Eastern seaboard (South Pacific Ocean) which is approximately
40 km to the East of Gympie. ( Left of the Picture).
About the 'Current Prediction' The weather station uses a number of given parameters and Boolean equations to predict the foreseeable weather trend, for instance, if it is raining very heavy and the wind gusts exceed a given strength then it assumes that a
thunderstorm is currently being experienced on the site. On the other hand, if the barometric pressure is dropping rapidly, the dew point is rising and the temperature is also rising in relation to the height of the cloud base, the prediction will be for a thunderstorm to develop. As the rates of change occur, it is sometimes difficult to know what the prediction is going to
be, the best way is to look at the long term trend given by the icons in the web cam pictures using the 6 hour archives. By doing this you will get a reasonably accurate prediction of what kind of weather lies ahead for the
region. Obviously the picture taken by the camera is an indication of the current climate as well.