Bendigo’s automatic weather station is back online and will be running at full capacity later this afternoon.

A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said the mains power was connected but the organisation was waiting for the back-up battery to fully charge.

“That battery needs to be charged before (the station) starts operating. It will be on air later today,” he said.

“It is just a process that it goes through. So in the late afternoon or early evening it will be fully charged and spitting out data.”

“It was very unfortunate that (the breakdown) coincided with Christmas when it is not easy to get people to repair things.”

The spokesman said all the data was useful particularly in extremely hot weather.

“All the data is useful to us, particularly when there are such high temperatures expected and a wind change across the state in afternoon,” he said.

“The fire authorities want as much data as they can can get (in those instances).”

Update, Wednesday, January 2

A Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said the weather station was yet to be repaired due to limited staff during the holiday period.

“It’s a fairly high priority to get those repairs done as soon as possible but it hasn’t happened unfortunately,” he said.

“Today the first day back for (many staff), so we are chasing it today. Hopefully as people return to work it will be looked at quickly.

“We have numerous other observation equipment around as well and it doesn’t impact the service we provide aside from not having those observations available for people who like to see them.”

Monday, December 31

The Bureau of Meteorology’s automatic weather station at Bendigo airport is still out of action.

The station experienced an electrical fault shortly before Christmas, and the bureau’s website has not published any observations since Friday, December 21.

A spokesperson said it was understood data had not been recorded, but other services were available.

“Automatic weather stations are one component of the large observation network our meteorologists draw on and the community still has access to reliable weather warnings and forecasting services through the Bureau's website and the BOM Weather app,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Related: Could December 2018 be a record-breaking month for heat in Bendigo?

They said the weather stations operated correctly 98.9 per cent of the time.

“We will be in a better position to advise of a return to service date once an available electrician can attend the site,” they said.

Weather sites are taking observations and current weather recordings from the Redesdale weather station, which is the closest to Bendigo.

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