But his interest soared to new levels in 2001 when his parents bought him a weather station – a computerised device that measures local conditions such as wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature and humidity.

By linking the $700 Oregon Scientific device up to his computer, Justin was able to create an automatically updating public website for his Cleveland weather station.

“It became more than a hobby after putting it up on the web because I discovered a lot of people were watching the site,” the IT manager said.

Since setting up website, Justin has upgraded to a more-advanced $1500 Davis Vantage Pro2 device and he has moved to Annerley.

But the weather station and a live webcam of current weather conditions remain set up at his parents’ Raby Bay home.

He said the website automatically obtained the latest data from the weather station and attracted several hundred visitors each day.

The site can be viewed at www.clevelandweat her.net