MEET Ridgy, Enso, Indy, Sam, – the four new national climatedogs that explain the latest science behind the key climate drivers bringing wetter and drier years to Australia’s farms.
And while they may look cute, these dogs round up our biggest droughts and floods.
Launched today on the Climate Kelpie website, this playful litter of animated sheepdogs help farmers and anyone reliant on the weather understand what influences the variation in Australia’s seasons.
The new national climatedog video animation series was funded by the Managing Climate Variability (MCV) program and builds on the local climatedogs concept initiated by Agriculture Victoria.
“The climatedogs have been redone to be relevant to all regions of Australia,” says climate specialist Graeme Anderson, with Agriculture Victoria.
The videos have also been updated with the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest science through research funded by MCV.
“They explain how each climate driver operates, how they affect our seasons and how some of the dogs are starting to behave a bit differently,” Mr Anderson said.
“In the last few years, Ridgy has been playing around with southern Australia’s weather.
“And Indy, who rounds up moisture from the warm north-east Indian Ocean across to south-eastern Australia, is looking a bit hot under the collar at the moment.
“It’s Indy who has been the dog bringing our current wetter weather conditions to the south-east.”
Tom Davison from Meat and Livestock Australia, who manage the MCV program, says the climatedogs are an important tool to help the program to communicate its research.
“These animations are a small part of the wider work we are doing to better understand what drives the variability in our climate,” Dr Davison said.
“This understanding allows us to manage that variability into the future, and assist farmers in running more profitable, sustainable and competitive businesses.”
The national dogs join two local climatedogs developed for Victoria and NSW:
Eastie – East Coast Lows – key weather systems in the south-east.
Mojo – Madden-Julian Oscillation – influences weather systems in northern Australia.
CLICK HERE to see how the climatedogs put their paws pm each state or territory of Australia.
Managing Climate Variability is Australia’s research and development program on climate variability. MCV provides climate knowledge to primary producers and natural resource managers. MCV is funded by Meat & Livestock Australia, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the Cotton Research & Development Corporation, the Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation and Sugar Research Australia.