General Information :

Statistics collected from previous years indicate consistent weather conditions prevail in the area from October to April. The mid-summer months (December to February) are usually hot with an increased chance of thunderstorms if tropical troughs develop from the north west of the continent. May to September still provide good to very good conditions, but thermal activity is obviously more restricted.

During the warmer season weather conditions generally allow soaring over a period from 4 hours on poor days to over 8 hours on good days. The depth of the convective layer ranges from 1500m AGL on the poor days to over 3000m (10',000ft) AGL on good days with thermal strength between 2m/s and 8m/s+. Ground level in the area is from 250-450m AMSL, launches are at about 900m (2880ft) AMSL.

The Manilla Sky Sailors club in conjunction with Godfrey's Manilla Paragliding School has a subscription to get access to the weather balloon data from the Met Bureau's office in Moree (150 km to the NW). This daily faxed data includes wind strength and direction and a temperature trace. It is the best prognosis on the days flying.

Current Weather and more :

Mt Borah WindTalker (also called “The Bitch”) - UHF channel 50 (Manilla Paragliding's private commercial UHF frequency) : Wind direction & strength, gusts and temperature continuously updated 24hrs a day. Reception available when in the Manilla region only ! Synoptic analysis, current hand-drawn weather chart, updated 6 hourly

4 day pressure prognosis, updated daily at 4pm

4 day weather forecast for the North West Slopes and Plains

Full current weather details can be obtained from the web site of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

Is there Rain in the Manilla area ? Current Moree Weather Radar updated every 10 minutes. Manilla is on the bottom right side of the radar image (south of Barraba).

Moree 10am balloon Wind and Temperature Trace – uploaded to the Met Bureaus site about 11:30am daily. Use : User id: bomw0007 Password: aviation when prompted. Don't ask us for an interpretation!

You can also check thunderstorm activity for New South Wales through Country Energy's Stormtracker