NZ Weather Forum

David wrote:

Razor wrote:Right.
I am officially losing my patience with the metservice. I have a job that is assisted by information being provided from our taxpayer funded meteorogical service provider.

What info do you want? I seem to be able to get in at the moment.

The problem is David that it is so haphazard. I am occasionally getting into the front page of the site, but when you start navigating to where you need to go it invariably crashes out. The info we are after is not found on other forms of media easily- rural and high country/ mountain forecasts.

While high praise must go to the Metservice for the standards of accuracy recently, they have comepletely undone the goodwill around here with the substandard website. In any other western nation this would be called an outrage.

It does seem a part of the problem is the site carries too many advertisements which could in times of need such as today be suspended in order to speed up the site.

Razor wrote: The problem is David that it is so haphazard. I am occasionally getting into the front page of the site, but when you start navigating to where you need to go it invariably crashes out. The info we are after is not found on other forms of media easily- rural and high country/ mountain forecasts.

While high praise must go to the Metservice for the standards of accuracy recently, they have comepletely undone the goodwill around here with the substandard website. In any other western nation this would be called an outrage.

Well if it helps here's some info for Canterbury high country (I assume that's the high country you mean)

Wed Jul 30 Issued at 4:20 am 30 Jul 2008 NZST
Snow becoming persistent this morning and heavy falls from afternoon.Poor visibility in blizzard conditions.
Wind at 1000m: Easterly 70 km/h.
Wind at 2000m: Easterly rising to 110 km/h this morning.
Free air freezing level: About 1100 metres.

Thu Jul 31 Issued at 4:20 am 30 Jul 2008 NZST
Snow, falling as sleet and rain below 600 metres, gradually easing from morning, and snow levels rising to 1500 metres.
Wind at 1000m: Easterly 65 km/h easing to southeast 40 km/h by late morning.
Wind at 2000m: Easterly 100 km/h easing to 50 km/h by midday.
Free air freezing level: Rising to 1800 metres.

Fri Aug 1 Issued at 1:26 pm 29 Jul 2008 NZST
Cloudy periods with a few drizzle patches possible. Light winds.

Sat Aug 2 Issued at 1:26 pm 29 Jul 2008 NZST
Fine with high cloud. Some rain developing about the divide later in the day. Northwesterlies developing.

Sun Aug 3 Issued at 1:26 pm 29 Jul 2008 NZST
Mainly fine. Westerly winds.

And the Canterbury plains rural forecast for the next 6days

Wed 30
Rain, with some heavy falls developing this afternoon.Winds tending southeast and strengthening this morning, strong and gusty in exposed places.

Thu 31
Rain, with some heavy falls, gradually easing from the north. Strong southeasterlies tending southerly and easing.

Fri 1
Cloudy with drizzle patches. Light winds.

Sat 2
Mainly fine. Northerly winds developing.

Sun 3
Southwest change with a few showers.

Mon 4
Dry with light winds.

Sorry if you want to look at the models etc. but I hope some of this helps!

Thanks matey...hells teeth you wouldn't want to be on the Porters -Arthurs Pass Road today!

Shock and horror...9AM radar pics on the M/S website are down for all BUT the WLG radar...

Shock and horror...9AM radar pics on the M/S website are down

Showing some light to mod rain over North Canterbury. For the north, heavy rain has departed Ak and is now moving off the Coromandel. Some heavy rain over Waikato.

A lot of media coverage of the current weather events will have drawn extra people to the MS web site.

try here for radar pics:-
http://metvuw.com/radar/radar.php?location=nz

katipo wrote:try here for radar pics:-
http://metvuw.com/radar/radar.php?location=nz

Thanks for that. Forgot about that one.

Interesting to note it's missing the Wellington 9am which is the only one that showed on the Metservice NZ Rural (Yes, Metservice is working for me at the moment, albiet painfully slow, but only for stored links, forget navigating around the site).

Immense frustration continues with the Metservice site. I have just got off the phone with a high country farmer who is absolutely spitting tacks.

Does anyone have access to the updated regional forecasts?

Razor wrote:Right.

I am officially losing my patience with the metservice. I have a job that is assisted by information being provided from our taxpayer funded meteorogical service provider. It seems whenever this info is really needed it is hard to access.

I am unable to source the required information in the most logicval manner ie online, in an even remotely timely manner- for 4 of the last 5 days. unless of course I pay for it commercially (which kind of defeats the whole taxpayer funding thing)

If anyone from the metservice is reading this, and this message comes from a large chunck of the South Island High Country fraternity also, ....PLEASE SORT IT OUT!

Immensely frustrated.

That's not quite correct. Although MetService is owned by the government, it's effectively run as an SOE and required to make a profit. Most of its funding comes from the private sector, e.g. the media. The government is however is one its clients and pays MetService a fee to make a portion of its info, particularly Weather-Warnings etc, freely available to the public.

But yes, as a dissatisfied customer, perhaps the government should ask for a refund?

Ask Woger, Wichard or Maxie what the answer is - they're the geniuses who imposed this model on us.

fair point there Nev

It just irks me that there are likely to be some idiots out the in the public who will take risks in the conditons (as was the case on the weekend) and it would be blimmin handy when opportunities arise, as they do in the High County, to advise people of up to date info.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but at the least the Metservice need a better server, it should be able to cope with days like today!

chch rain radars shows the first rain into north canty now

real time rain updates from nth canty here:
http://www.zitafarm.com/weather/
17mm already now there

Well it wasn't that long ago a group of school kids were killed in a tragic preventable weather related accident. Is it going to take another to get sufficent traffic capacity on the Metservice website? As it stands, the people who know looking to see what's going, on can prevent those that don't know from finding out. This could potentially lead to lost lifes, profit making SOE or not, it's not acceptable!

Manukau heads observer wrote:real time rain updates from nth canty here:
http://www.zitafarm.com/weather/
17mm already now there

Since your original post, Brian, it has gone up to 60.2mm... 8o

tgsnoopy wrote:Well it wasn't that long ago a group of school kids were killed in a tragic preventable weather related accident. Is it going to take another to get sufficent traffic capacity on the Metservice website? As it stands, the people who know looking to see what's going, on can prevent those that don't know from finding out. This could potentially lead to lost lifes, profit making SOE or not, it's not acceptable!

Oooo, Tabloid sensationalism isn't going to help this. If an outdoor pursuits group were really determined to make sure they can get a forecast, I suspect they would splash out on MetConnect and not just rely on the "free-to-air" website.
There is a potential conflict I can see with regards to the government contract and the Metservice website. The website provides Crown-funded services such as Weather Warnings, but also forecasts funded from other sources- eg rural forecasts.
The website is free, therefore it is very safe to assume that it is funded by advertising on the site. The suggestion by someone earlier that they should drop advertisments during busy periods is therefore complete cowpat.
However, it should be possible to go somewhere else to get the Crown-funded services. Maybe it is already? I've never checked. I know the NZ Herald site holds a fair bit of stuff.

also, i remember clearly being able to access metservice during those severe thunderstorms just fine. wasnt metservices fault.

It will get even worse if the torys get in and sell it

Tabloid sensationalism? Get real, very few people can afford to pay for that info. It's suppost to be free and accessible for everyone in NZ. It should be able to handle the load and be available.

I stand by what I said. Metservices stance seems to be to play it down and get around to it later. I say that their stance could cost a life or lives... Not good enough. OSH would have them for breakfast if they were employers and their customers their employees.

Metservice needs to realise the system let us all down and can't cope, then do something about it as soon as is reasonably practical, not ignore it and pretend there is no problem.

How would you feel if your loved one died cause they chose to hide their head in the sand?

Long shot? Perhaps, but not worth the risk.

Hi, yes i had problems viewing the site at that time and again today (wed) but i believe its most important to able to access this site when severe weather is happening and not get a "too busy" page.
This is the time when people need to know whats going on otherwise its a waste of time and yes i am addicted to the 7 day rain forecast!!
Another site that i like is the Australian Bureau of Meteorology site...Check it out

tgsnoopy wrote:Tabloid sensationalism? Get real, very few people can afford to pay for that info. It's suppost to be free and accessible for everyone in NZ. It should be able to handle the load and be available.

I stand by what I said. Metservices stance seems to be to play it down and get around to it later. I say that their stance could cost a life or lives... Not good enough. OSH would have them for breakfast if they were employers and their customers their employees.

Metservice needs to realise the system let us all down and can't cope, then do something about it as soon as is reasonably practical, not ignore it and pretend there is no problem.

How would you feel if your loved one died cause they chose to hide their head in the sand?

Long shot? Perhaps, but not worth the risk.

I'm with ya pal

I've thought about this, I think the Metservices needs 2 levels of website...a broad one for the "passing interest" joe blow, and a separate more technical one for us junkies. That might take the heat out of peak demand a little.

Or else the top brass could just take the gorse out of their pockets and install a half decent server...

Does anyone know what has happened with the Metservice site. It is stating "No radar images are currently available". Has everything gone down?

the direct radar is still working

tgsnoopy wrote:Tabloid sensationalism? Get real, very few people can afford to pay for that info. It's suppost to be free and accessible for everyone in NZ. It should be able to handle the load and be available.

I stand by what I said. Metservices stance seems to be to play it down and get around to it later. I say that their stance could cost a life or lives... Not good enough. OSH would have them for breakfast if they were employers and their customers their employees.

Metservice needs to realise the system let us all down and can't cope, then do something about it as soon as is reasonably practical, not ignore it and pretend there is no problem.

How would you feel if your loved one died cause they chose to hide their head in the sand?

Long shot? Perhaps, but not worth the risk.

People who really need that info can afford it. The fact that it's (as in MetConnect) the only way to get continuously updated rain radar means it should be indispensable for outdoor activities centres.
They are probably playing it down because they don't want to draw attention to the problem...can't blame them for that. I do recognise that there's a problem and I'm willing to bet they see a problem there also. Even if you take the most cynical, pessimistic view of their "top brass", you can see that if the site is down, they lose advertising revenue from lack of clicks and hits in general. That's not good for a business.

To be honest, if I were planning a personal trip that was highly weather dependent, I would be utterly pissed off if their site was down. But then I'd turn on the radio, or if it was really, really important to me I'd phone them (yes, I realise it's not free but then my health and safety is worth more than a few dollars)! I'd say "It's not good enough" that a person got in trouble in a storm because the website was down and they weren't smart enough to realise there are other ways of getting the information.

I also think you are making strong assumptions, that they are burying their heads in the sand, and not trying to fix it. How do you know? It's easy to get on your soapbox and say "it's not good enough" but do you really know what's going on?

Razor wrote:
I'm with ya pal

I've thought about this, I think the Metservices needs 2 levels of website...a broad one for the "passing interest" joe blow, and a separate more technical one for us junkies. That might take the heat out of peak demand a little.

Or else the top brass could just take the gorse out of their pockets and install a half decent server...

They do have two levels, one is Metconnect, the other is Metservice.


Having said what I've said, I do find it irritating that you see adverts for their site plastered everywhere and then it fails when it's needed most. But I've never missed out on valuable information because it's gone down. Let's "get real" here, we can't be completely reliant on the internet.