The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has upgraded its weather app as Australians face more frequent and more extreme weather events.
The BOM Weather app, available in supported operating systems, now has push notifications to provide more targeted advice to communities during severe weather. The notifications include six types of weather warnings:
“We're constantly looking to improve our services wherever possible, and we know people already use the BOM Weather app to get valuable information about rain, wind, temperature, and warnings quickly and easily,” said Sandy Whigh, decision support services general manager at BOM. “People can now turn on push notifications for their set location, and the BOM Weather app will proactively alert them when warnings are issued for those areas.”
The updates follow the catastrophic flooding in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) in February and March 2022, deemed the costliest flood in the country.
Once installed and enabled, a notification will appear on the device's lock screen when a warning is issued relevant to the user's set location. Users may also choose which type of notification they would like to receive.
BoM encourages Australians to stay up to date with its warnings and forecasts, especially throughout severe weather seasons, and offer feedback about their experiences with the app to improve how it delivers essential weather information to communities.
“Users can lodge their feedback through the app feedback form with as much detail as possible to allow bureau experts to continue refining and tailoring the BOM Weather app to meet their needs,” Whigh said.
Users must update or install the latest version of the weather app to see the push notifications feature.
