Important weather and safety information

About Ben’s Weather Report

Checking the weather should be the easy part of planning your day. Ben’s Weather Report is an independent Australian website built around that idea. Whether you’re heading out for a fish or wondering if the washing will survive the afternoon, you should be able to find the forecast you need and make sense of it without hunting through menus. That is what Ben set out to build.

How it started

Ben lives in Darwin, where keeping an eye on the weather can become rather more important than deciding whether to take an umbrella.

In November 2025, with a major cyclone threatening Darwin, he wanted to know where it was heading, when it might arrive and how strong it could be. He turned to the government’s recently redesigned weather website, but found himself struggling to navigate it at precisely the moment he needed clear answers.

The final straw came when he learned that the website rebuild and its supporting systems had cost approximately $96.5 million. Ben set himself a rather different budget: well under $100.

His ambition was to build a weather website he would actually want to use every day, with forecasts and local conditions easy to find and understand. Something useful whether a cyclone was approaching or he was simply making plans for the weekend.

That became Ben’s Weather Report.

• ABC News: The $96.5 million website bill
• ABC News: What the rebuild included

Location and privacy

You choose the place; we do not access your device’s location. Search any supported Australian location and change it whenever you like.

Your selected place and its coordinates stay in your browser for the tab’s session, or future visits if you select Remember this location. Remembered locations have no automatic expiry set by the website. Browsers may restore reopened sessions. Some tide and sea temperature results are saved temporarily. You can remove these through your browser’s site-data settings.

Location searches pass through our website. WeatherAPI.com receives search terms or selected coordinates; OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service receives locality searches, sometimes including the state and postcode. These requests come from our server.

Sea temperature requests go directly from your browser to Open-Meteo, which receives the selected coordinates and connection information, including your IP address. Tide results come from tables stored by the website. Satellite images load from our satellite-data service.

The hosting service uses security cookies and processes connection information. External providers handle information under their own privacy policies.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ben’s Weather Report free?

Yes! The weather pages are free to use, and the plan is to keep core weather information free.

Which countries does it cover?

Australia for now. We hope to add New Zealand soon, with more countries to follow as the site grows. There are no confirmed launch dates yet.

Is this an official government weather service?

No. Ben’s Weather Report is an independent website. For official warnings and emergency instructions, check the Bureau of Meteorology and your local emergency authorities.

Where does the weather information come from?

Our weather and forecasts come from WeatherAPI.com, tide predictions from Bureau of Meteorology tables, sea surface temperatures from Open-Meteo, and satellite images from Japan’s Himawari-9 via NOAA’s public archive.

Location searches use WeatherAPI.com, OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service and the Australian Postcodes & Suburbs dataset. Satellite map boundaries come from Natural Earth.

Why is the forecast different from my other weather app?

Weather apps do not all use the same data, forecast models or update schedules. They may also use slightly different locations, and conditions can vary even between nearby places. When comparing forecasts, check that the place, time and type of forecast match.

How often is the information updated?

It depends on the information. Each provider updates on its own schedule, and we temporarily save some results to avoid repeat requests. Check the timestamps where shown to see how recent the data is.

Are the satellite images live?

Not quite. The viewer shows the latest valid images available to it, but collecting and processing them takes time. Check the image’s timestamp, age and freshness message to see how recent it is.

Why do I need to choose a location?

So we can show you the weather for the right place. The current version asks you to select a location; it does not ask permission to access your device’s location.

Can I check the weather somewhere else?

Of course! Search for any supported Australian suburb, town, city or postcode and choose the matching result. You do not have to be there to check its weather.

Why are tides or sea temperatures missing for some places?

We only show tides where we have checked that a reference station is suitable. Sea temperatures depend on our provider’s marine coverage and whether data is available. If we cannot provide a result, we show it as unavailable rather than guess.

What should I use during severe weather or an emergency?

Check official Bureau of Meteorology warnings and follow instructions from the relevant emergency services and government authorities. Never rely on Ben’s Weather Report alone for safety decisions.

Are more features coming?

We are continuing to develop the site, including exploring specialist tools for people such as fishermen and farmers. There is no fixed timetable yet, and not every idea will make it onto the site. Your suggestions will help us decide what to work on next.

How can I report a problem or suggest an improvement?

We would love to hear from you. Select Feedback on the site to open an email, or write directly to info@bensweather.cloud.

Feedback and contact

Ben’s Weather Report is still being developed, and feedback is welcome.

Please get in touch if you notice incorrect or confusing information, a bug, a location-search problem or something that makes the site difficult to use. Accessibility feedback and suggestions for useful future features are welcome too.

Use Feedback on the site or email info@bensweather.cloud.

For a problem report, include the selected location, the page you were using and roughly when it happened. A screenshot can help, but please leave out personal information you do not want to share.

Acknowledgements and credits

Weather and forecasts: WeatherAPI.com.

Tide predictions: Bureau of Meteorology. Source material © Commonwealth of Australia, represented by the Bureau of Meteorology. Ben’s Weather Report has processed the published predictions for display. This independent presentation does not imply Bureau endorsement. Tide data information provides the source-table links and full notice, including the archived Crookhaven Heads tables.

Sea surface temperature: Open-Meteo, using Météo-France/Copernicus Marine data. Open-Meteo API data is supplied under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Values are rounded for display. Generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information; see the source product and product DOI.

Satellite imagery: Himawari-9 / Japan Meteorological Agency, distributed through NOAA’s public archive. Processed and colour-enhanced by Ben’s Weather Report. This presentation does not imply endorsement by JMA or NOAA.

Location information: © OpenStreetMap contributors, with data available under the Open Database Licence. Location lookup also uses WeatherAPI.com and Marcus Schappi’s Australian Postcodes & Suburbs dataset. Locality names are reformatted for display.

Satellite map boundaries: Natural Earth, whose map data is public domain.

Thank you to the people and organisations whose observations, forecasts and open geographic data make this site possible.