Mackay Radar outage caused by damaged wire as Tropical Cyclone Kirrily arrived

BOM’s newest radar cost millions and was freshly built for the wet season, but failed when it was needed most. Here’s why.

A newly built weather radar is offline as a cyclone threatens Queensland’s coast, after its completion date was criticised ahead of Tropical Cyclone Jasper.

Community members have made their feelings clear after a key weather radar was unavailable when Cyclone Kirrily touched down in Queensland.

Mackay Radar was offline on January 25 from about 5am as residents scrambled to prepare for the worst with a notice stating it was caused by “technical or equipment problems”.

A Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson responded to requests for further information that “a damaged wire in the antenna” had been caused by a “manufacturing fault”.

“The Bureau of Meteorology can confirm that the Mackay Radar images have been available on the Bureau website and BOM Weather app since 6:08pm AEDT Friday 26 January 2024, after an unexpected outage,” the spokesperson said.

“The fault was not due to the impacts from ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily and there has been no infrastructure damage to the Mackay Radar.

“In the case of the Mackay Radar suffering an outage, the Gladstone, Bowen and Emerald radars provide overlapping coverage for the Mackay region and can be accessed on the Bureau’s website and BOM Weather app.”

Screenshot of the BOM website for Mackay Radar Loop at 8am, January 25, 2024. Photo: Contributed

A notice on the Mackay Radar page on Tuesday January 30 stated it would “be undergoing tests and evaluation for six months until early May” and “there may be intermittent outages during this period”.

Mackay mayor Greg Williamson said the BOM needed to “get their act together” and technicians needed to get the radar system online “as soon as possible”.

Mr Williamson said he had spoken to the BOM chief executive officer Dr Andrew Johnson at the Queensland Disaster Management Group meeting on Thursday morning about the outage, but only recieved “some fairly bureaucratic feedback”.

“People rely on accurate weather,” Mr Williamson said.

“I’m disappointed that, at this very worst time, it’s gone down.

Mackay Regional Council mayor Greg Williamson warned residents to prepare "a plan of action" using the Emergency Action Guide as Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is expected to form overnight. Photo: Zoe Devenport

“We’ve got a brilliant brand new system (but) new systems always carry with them teething problems.”

In the Whitsunday Cyclones Facebook group, Mike Manning said the outage was “a bloody joke”.

“Just went to have a look at the radar to see what is going on rain wise.. guess I won’t be doing that!” Mr Manning wrote.

“Let’s do maintenance right when a cyclone is approaching the coast (slow clap here). I really hope it’s an issue with the radar and not them doing maintenance!”

Whitsunday MP Amanda Camm also criticised the BOM in December after a scramble to complete the Mackay Radar ahead of Tropical Cyclone Jasper.

Ms Camm told the ABC that when she headed the local disaster management group during Cyclone Debbie “we relied upon that radar” and was concerned about its efficacy when dangerous weather was at the door.

Mackay Radar Loop. Photo: Contributed

The BOM stated its weather warning service was designed to be “resilient and not dependent on any one piece of equipment”, with radar information supplemented by satellites, automatic weather stations, radars, rain gauges, and hydrological monitoring stations.

“The composite nature of these systems allows specialist staff to monitor approaching weather and issue forecasts and warnings.”

BOM said publically accessible images showing temperature, rain and wind information can be found on its MetEye service with satellite images available from the Himawari-8.

Originally published as Mackay Radar outage caused by damaged wire as Tropical Cyclone Kirrily arrived