Predictions have been generated only by using the orbits of the moon. The database for the predictweather website was installed and sealed nearly six years ago - but it could just as easily have been twenty or 200. Official meteorologists using daily satellite pictures can forecast for the next 3 days, but using the moon we can go much further. Long range forecasting looks at trends. Due to the greater time-scale we ask that you allow a +/- 24 hr error, and at certain peak orbit periods when, due to the moon's changing speed the weather speeds up or slows down, possibly longer. Also, temperatures are only trends, going up or down. Major cities' data were collected before the days of increased reflective glass, asphalt and vehicle fumes which means today you may have to add up to 4C.

Read on for recent predictions for Australia.  I have highlighted towns and regions in bold.

2007 - May onwards

Bundaberg Qld

The drought is still lingering about SE QLD but as most other drought-stricken areas have had good recent rain it is reasonable to assume that QLD will not completely miss out. But you may have to wait a bit longer. A mostly dry spell can be expected from now until the first week in May, when 5th-8th will deliver light falls, and then the skies may open for SE QLD to be served most of May's rain about May18th-22nd. Rain is mostly absent in June, apart from small amounts possible on or near June 7th, 8th, 17th, 29th. July 10th-13th has promise of good falls, with a quickly passing but big dump about July21st. Aug 4th sees light falls in the district, with the next chance of heavy falls about August 29th. There is little or no rain expected in Sept (except passing shower about 23rd) or October. However, November is
a different story, with good coastal rain 3rd-4th and 13th-14th, and light falls around 17th-18th and 22nd-24th. Dec 26th should deliver some worthwhile rain also. To summarise, about six good downpurs are on the cards for the rest ofthe year, but only May 18th, July 10th, and August 29th may serve heavy enough falls to cause flooding. For Queensland the first frosts for the year, for those areas susceptible, should be in the first week in June, and then they may go right through till the last at the end of October. September may be the month of the worst fogs. First snow is expected to be at the end of July around Stanthorpe.

Interview with John Laws 2UE, 20 April 2007, 9.53am
Drought breaking? The water shortage situation may not be that drastic. There'll be a cyclone crossing the NW coast in the first week of May so that may do something for the interior, you'll see that start to form about April 29, which will build up as it moves around that W coast and a lot of rivers may get filled from it over in the west. As a large storm system moves south it often sends associated rain-bearing fronts wider afield affecting other States. I have rain chances in the second week of May over parts of VIC and NSW. It is worth looking at what rains might be expected in feeder towns that sit on or near the Murray. In Mildura there are two rain chances, about May 9-10 and again 20-21. at least one of those dates should deliver about 50mm in one day. After that there's June 24-28, maybe 12mm, and then nothing significant until December. Bourke has a rain chance between May 3-10, but not much more than 15-20mm, May 18-28 there's about a 60/40 chance of 100ml. Towns like Bourke that have weir systems will benefit. However this chance of rainshows up in one good cycle but not in every one I use. Then perhaps scarce rain chances until Aug 7-10, about 15mm Broken Hill: between May 9-12 some good rain, about 20mm and then May 19-20 another 20-30mm. Then some in the first week of August. But then not much in terms of big amounts till next year. Cunnamulla the first week in August looks good. Menindee May 11-12 about 30mm, 19-20th, and August 4-7th. If all these places get this rain then it will add to the Murray river system and by the time it gets to where it's needed most in the south there could be good amounts available. Hence May is the month, afterwhich there's not much more till August.

As for Sydney in coming months, it's the northern declination on Sunday 22nd and you usually get a few showers out of that. Temperatures will stay up for a week or so, you're going to get some rain around the end of the first week in May, with cooler temperatures, May may be quite warm overall and a bit wet for NSW, then rain for Sydney in the first week in June, in the middle of June, and first week of July.

May
Rain in E NSW in the first week, then around the 12th-13th and then the 20th onwards. The last few days of May should see the heavens open. And that lot will all be over by the 1st of June.

June
The next rain will be in the central N on 7th-9th June and the middle of the month will see rain to many districts in all central and E areas. The 19th of June brings more for the W half of the State, crossing to the E half by the 20th and to the S half by the 21st. and then petering out everywhere. So for the first half of the year, no shortage of rain.

4BC Brisbane, hosts Peter and Ross, 4 April 2007, 8.40am
Between 4th-10th May, watch out for thunderstorms with hail, gale force winds and the risk of flooding. Other extreme weather events will be, I think, in the last week in Aug. and finally in the last week ofDecember. June, rain eases back, that month will be drier but other winter months should see average rain, so winter won't be too dry, a fairly typical winter in terms of rainfall amounts, then overall a drier spring withonly a third of the average season's rainfall. September should see plenty of clear sunny days, the occasional foggy morning and temperatures may take a sharp turn towards warmer by the end of the month. October is likely to receive little or no rainfall at all this year,while average rain arrives in November with occasional hail storms. December ends the year following the drier spring pattern, by being considerably drier than average. So the wetter months in 2007 should turn out to be only April and May in Brisbane and March-Aug in Bundaberg. There's no guarantee that cyclonic systems will deliver because they tend to be very temperamental and we can only pinpoint the potential for them, not the certainty. Hail may come in May in Port Curtis, in June. Frosts should start in the Warrego on May 23, Frosts can be expected tostart in the Granite belt about May 31, then Warrego again on June 4 extending to Maranoa, Darling Downs and Western Moreton, and Maranoa on June 10, then a bit on Darling Downs on June 11.

Townsville

Interview with Nathalie Fernbach Radio MIX 106.3, 15 March 2007

1. How is it possible to predict the weather using the moon (how does it work -just in layman's terms)?

The Moon creates weather because of its gravitational pull on the air.The theory is that the air has a tide, just like the sea and just as a sea tide is measurable and predictable way in advance, so too with the air-tide. The air tide creates the weather because the air is like a big hunk of insulation keeping away two things; the heat of the sun and the cold of space, both of which would like to rush to the ground but the thick air-layer stops both of them. Imagine if the height of the air was everchanging, just like the level of the ocean, then at different times of day/night the heat or the cold could come down here, in more or less amounts. As the moon goes overhead from one horizon to the other it does change the height of the air by up to 25% which changes the temperature, which in turn affects cloud formation and condensation and the generating of winds. For instance around a full moon the moon is out of the sky until evening so the daytime air height is lower, so the heat of the sun comes closer to the ground with less air height to stop it. That's why a summer full moon day is a really hot one and that causes extreme weather events. That's when TCs form, just like on the last FM which was on the 4th. The 2nd saw the lowest barometric reading so far this month. In Feb the FM was on the 2nd. Look at all the rain -300mm-in the first 3 days of Feb. In Jan the FM was on the 4th. You got the highest wind speed that day, 35kph. That's because on the 3rd the moon was in what they call apogee which is when the moon is closer to earth or most distant, that's when this air tide effect gets exaggerated. Of course no technology has been put into this, because the met services refuse to consider that the moon has any influence on weather, so for this type of long range forecasting we have to use older and more traditional methods. We look at moon cycles and match present weather to historic weather that happened on same moon cycle times in the past. To do this we access historical data. In the past, ancient villagers kept their own records by planting sticks and marker stones around stone circles like Stonehenge. These stone rings were all aligned to the moon and were really giant laptops.

2. How accurate are your predictions ?  (did you have any inkling of cyclone Larry?)

Well let's look back. For Jan, I said heavy heavy around 24th Townsville actually got 100mm on 22nd I had the hottest day down to be on 17th, actually it was the hottest day on 14th, close enough. I had 235mm for Jan, you got 280mm. For Feb, I said, a lot of rain would come around the middle of the month, 13th-19th, cyclonic about 15th and possible floods 15th-20th. Well, you got 25mm on 15th. BUT totally unpredictable things happen around a FM and that is always an error factor which I warn about,- always expect extreme weather around summer FMs. Cyclone Larry was one of those, and if you look back at all the big summer cyclones, you'll find most occur either on or near Full or New moons. As to accuracy most give me about 85%. Long range forecasting is more about trends than day to day, which the BoM is better at. When you go to the doctor and he says take these for your problem - it may clear up today or in a couple of days time. Well, I'm the same. It may clear up today or in a couple of days time. If it's good enough for a visit to your doctor why should I be any different?.

3. Why do you do it ?

Well, why not? Someone has to! I want to provide something useful and I want to spread knowledge about the moon's role in weather, which is something of a gaping hole in meterology. If forecasters can't predict weather for a week ahead then they certainly don't know what extreme weather will be happening in 50 years time, so global warming centuries ahead is just rubbish. I want farmers to start doing this themselves, to look at the cycles that are operating, and you won't hear that word
cycles used much by the scaremongers, and I want them to stop scaring the kids. There's no such thing as climate change. Climate means weather at a latitude, anyone can look the word climate up in the dictionary. Well, latitudes don't change. For instance Cairns is almost the same latitude as Broome. They both get the same average temperatures, annual maximums around 30-31 and minimums around 20. Go down the bottom and Perth right in the west is pretty much the same latitude as Broken Hill in the middle and Taree on the E coast and all three get about 24 for their average maximum and 12 for the average min. Bourke in QLD is the same as Dalwallinu in WA. So I do it because they are discoveries I've made and it's nice to share it.

4. Here in Townsville we are having a late hot Summer (which nobody seems to have predicted), so what's on the cards for Townsville for the rest of 2007?

Immediately coming up, for March, I'd say more rain around the 17th and 26th, and it should be quite wet from 30th-Apr 3rd. From now till June there'll be a lot of rain, but June and July will only have about 5 or 6 rain days each, so there'll be some big downpours Aug to Oct, little or no rain at all November, about half the average rain amount for that month and Dec, again wetter than average, most coming in first and last weeks, and some gales and stormy weather in the last few days of the year all over the NE of the State.

VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
Q: What is the long range weather forecast for Victoria, especially areas like Swan Hill, Shepparton, Bendigo and Ballarat?

A: For this year for Ballarat and Melbourne region, an average or drier year, then a WETTER than average year south of Melbourne and in the east of the State, and also up around Bendigo and Shepparton. South Rivernia may be average-to-wetter. In the west e.g.Horsham may be about average,although Coleraine may be drier.

2007: wetter year, autumn: wet, cloudy, not cold winter: cloudy spring: not too warm, unusually cool, summer: sunny

2008: a drier and warm year with high Ts, no cool parts, but won't be dry enough to be called a drought year autumn: warm,
winter: cool maximums spring: dry, cool parts summer: cloudy, some record high Ts, windy

2009: an average rainfall year, dry sunny. Not a year with anything unusual going on, a sort of in-between year, average rain and average temperatures, autumn: dry, sunny, not hot Ts, winter: wet, warm, no extra cold times spring: sunniest, summer: driest

2010: an unusually wet and windy year with an extra cold winter autumn: windy winter: dry, sunny, extra cold, windy
spring: cloudy, wet  windy summer: wet, not cool, calm

2011: another wetter than average year, cloudy, notable for being very calm not hot, cooler than av, autumn: unseasonably cool, calm winter: calmspring: calm summer: cold, no hot parts