A TECHNICAL fault has been blamed for a number of wacky weather readings at Tamworth airport recently.
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It's not the first time the weather readings have been off the charts at the airport in the last 12 months, but the Bureau of Meteorology maintains the instances of "erroneous" data recorded by automatic stations were rare.
On Wednesday, Tamworth residents would have been a bit bemused to see the airport weather station had recorded 909mm of rain at 9am.
The reading remained on the bureau's website for some time.
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It came a week after another dubious recording which saw the city apparently post its coldest ever April temperature, with a brisk -0.3 degrees registered last Thursday.
Minimum temperatures around the region were significantly warmer on the day, with Gunnedah only dropping to 12.7 degrees and Quirindi's coolest was just 10.4 degrees.
Tamworth's freezing Thursday also came after the hottest ever April temperature in Tamworth (33.9 degrees) was posted on Wednesday.
It was almost 10 degrees warmer than Quirindi's top for Thursday (25 degrees), while Gunnedah topped-out at 26.2 degrees.
A spokesperson for the bureau said they were aware there was an issue with the Tamworth airport automatic weather station and technicians were working to rectify it.
"We have taken steps to remove the erroneous temperature data from website and any other data found to be erroneous will be treated as per the bureau's standard quality assurance process," the spokesperson said.
"Pieces of equipment such as automatic weather stations can on rare occasions encounter technical faults or issues.
"The bureau has rigorous data quality assurance systems in place to identify issues and ensure the data is treated appropriately."
In winter 2018, the bureau confirmed its Tamworth station had been producing false readings for over a month. It included a reading of -8.6 degrees which would've been the city's coldest temperature ever.