Qlders at risk as Bureau of Meteorology failures exposed in damning new report

Qld residents were forced to rely on amateur storm chasers instead of the weather bureau which failed to predict and alert the state during natural disasters, a new report has revealed.

The destroyed home of Len la Tours which was gutted by deadly storms in December 2023. Picture: Scott Powick

Queenslanders were forced to rely on private weather companies and community Facebook pages after widespread failures by the Bureau of Meteorology to predict and alert the community during natural disasters in 2023/24, a report has revealed.

The report by the Office of Inspector-General of Emergency Management (IGEM) into the state’s response to cyclones, floods and severe storms over the 2023 Christmas has listed a series of concerns over delayed weather warnings and advice.

One council reported that they relied on up to four other sources and a private weather company to keep up to date, while another stated that the Bureau issued a warning more than five hours after major flood levels had already been reached.

That same council said it received “repeated advice that quite confidently indicated the low-pressure system and associated rain event was going to continue [to] shift southwest and have a reduced impact to [the area]”.

“This advice continued through several LDMG meetings until advice shifted to a one in 100-year event which occurred well after water impacted households.”

The aftermath of the monster storm that left a trial of destruction on the Gold Coast in 2023. Picture: Scott Powick

The report noted that the complex weather events, telecommunication outages and poor mobile coverage impacted the ability for the Bureau and government agencies to issue timely warnings.

A Bureau spokesman said the agency was yet to view the IGEM report due to responding to the current severe weather season and flooding event in North Queensland.

“And as a result, cannot comment on its contents or on other interpretations of it,” he said.

“The Bureau will review the IGEM 2023-24 Severe Weather Season Review in due course and action as required.”

Other councils criticised the BOM for lacking the local telemetry infrastructure necessary to provide precise warnings. Councils said they were unable to issue their own warnings to residents due to the Bureau’s “broad” flood impact zones.

“The [Bureau] had no data on the river or connecting rivers,” one council said.

“The [Bureau] were always available for meetings; they just had no data relevant to our area.”

Local governments said they also relied too heavily on the Bureau’s long-range forecasting, which had predicted a hot, dry summer and were left unprepared with inadequate staffing during the flood and storm events.

Fallen trees across the Gold Coast after the December 2032 event. Picture: Scott Powick

Between 1 October 2023 and 30 April 2024, the BOM issued 2540 weather warnings, with the report noting that communities were experiencing warning fatigue due to the high volume of information from multiple emergency service agencies.

The IGEM recommended that the Queensland Police Service develop a statewide warnings strategy including the procurement of a common publishing platform to create and publish warnings.

BOM warnings:

Severe weather – 144

Severe storm – 1254

Flood – 1050

Cyclone – 92

total = 2540

Percentage of people who received warnings from the following sources:

Local council – 17 per cent

BOM – 7 per cent

SES – 7 per cent

TV or radio – 5 per cent

Other weather forecasters – 3 per cent

Queensland Government – 2 per cent

Friends or family – 2 per cent

Social media – 2 per cent

Insurance company – 1 per cent

Utilities provider – 1 per cent

Other – 2 per cent

Not sure/don’t remember – 12 per cent