Bunn-dle package: new weather app a one-stop shop

Victorian-based weather presenter and meteorologist, Jane Bunn, is behind the development of a new app which will regularly source data from four separate weather models to provide the latest information for the agriculture industry.

The app, called ‘Jane’s Weather’, has an algorithm developed by data scientists from the University of Melbourne. The app observes a range of weather factors, including temperature, cloud cover, wind and Delta T, and then overlays it with other data (including location and historical records) to create a precise and personalised forecast based on what the user wants to know.

“Quite often farmers will have apps they look at and find one was right one time, another is alright when it comes to rain, and so on,” Bunn said.

“What we’re doing is bringing the best data under one umbrella and letting you see them side-by-side so you can identify if a particular model is going off on a very weird tangent and can say, ‘let’s not trust that’ because that model is clearly having a bad day.”

The app could also be beneficial for other industries, including construction, event management, aviation, mining and logistics, she said.

“The alert service is up and running and it makes sure that anything you need to know about, you are alerted to,” Bunn explained.

“For example, when there is an activity where you need to know if there are wind gusts over 60km/h, we can let you know hours over the next week in which that will be a concern.

“The biggest issue with the other apps is they have only one of those underlying models driving the weather forecast. You don’t know if that model is on the right track as you have nothing to compare it with – you’re just trusting that one thing.”

Three of the four main global models are already incorporated into the app, and the team is now seeking equity investment of up to $750,000 from angel, corporate and institutional investors to fund access to the data-rich fourth model.

The AgriFutures growAG. platform has been helping Jane’s Weather connect with potential investors and has already received a number of inquiries since being listed.

“We are in discussions with three different organisations which have come through growAG.,” Bunn said.

“We are seeking investors for what I think is going to be a game-changer for weather forecasting.

“Australia is step one and then we can go global. We are thinking New Zealand will be next and then the USA and Europe because weather data is in global demand, and we can fine tune it for all the conditions across the world.”

Learn more about Jane’s Weather investment opportunity here. Expressions of interest close on September 30, 2022.