HailNet
Known as UQ HailNet, this project is building Queensland’s first automated network of hail and wind monitoring stations to better understand and manage the impact of severe weather on communities, infrastructure, and agriculture.
UQ HailNet aims to establish a long-term, scientifically robust hail monitoring system across South East Queensland and the Darling Downs.
Project background
Hailstorms are among Queensland’s most damaging natural hazards, regularly causing loss and disruption to buildings, vehicles, crops, and communities.
The Insurance Council of Australia lists three Queensland hailstorms among the nation’s 20 most costly disasters since 1967, each with insured losses exceeding $2 billion.
In the 2020 “Halloween” hailstorm alone, emergency services received more than 2,000 requests for assistance and agricultural losses exceeded $60 million across South East Queensland. Despite this impact, there is currently no public, ground-based network in Australia that systematically measures hail.
The absence of reliable hail data makes it difficult to assess regional risk, design resilient infrastructure, and manage on-farm exposure to severe storms.
This project expands the past work by QFF on hail as a peril especially for horticulture, cotton and intensive plant industries and the parametric insurance solutions available to mitigate the risk.
Key objectives
Through this project, we will be:
- installing ten automated hail and wind monitoring stations in high-risk regions
- developing a public online portal for real-time access to measured hail and wind data
- creating a long-term archive of hail and wind observations to support research and risk modelling
- building awareness among farmers, disaster managers, and insurers about how hail data can improve forecasting, planning, and insurance options.
By collecting accurate ground-level data, the project will:
- improve severe storm forecasting through better calibration with Bureau of Meteorology systems
- help industry and government design more resilient materials and infrastructure
- support farmers to understand and manage hail risk, including potential applications in innovative insurance products.
Research outcomes and future applications
Data collected through UQ HailNet will inform the development of parametric insurance options. This is an approach to farm risk management that triggers payouts based on measurable weather events rather than post-event damage assessments. Insurance collaborators working with the UQ HailNet includes Suncorp and CelsiusPro.
The network intends to help improve emergency response planning and provide valuable insight into how hail size, intensity, storm duration and wind intensity correlate with crop and building damage.
Our project partners
This collaboration between The University of Queensland (UQ), the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), and the Queensland Farmers Federation (QFF) is funded through the Queensland Resilience and Risk Reduction Fund (QRRRF) administered by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA).
