Metservice observations contractor jobs

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OzMike
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Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by OzMike »

G'day everyone,
I'm Mike, a new forum member here from Australia, currently living in Exmouth, WA. I've visited NZ several times and love the place, so much so that my wife and I intend to retire there, in a few year's time.

I have a question regarding the contracts for weather observations: is there anywhere that these jobs are advertised? I know the observation stations are run by contractors, and they hire staff as and when they find them, having spoken to the observer in Hokitika. This seems a rather ad hoc setup for someone who has worked for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as an observer for close to 30 years. I know from email contact with another contractor that they can have a lot of trouble finding workers, especially considering the hours, and that they end up doing most of the observations themselves which makes for a long day, and infrequent holidays.

I ask the question because availability of work is a factor on where we might live in NZ. At the moment our preference is around Nelson (where there is, of course, no Met station!) but I'd be happy to travel to other places for short stints, say for leave relief so the contractor can get away. An alternative is Hokitika which is a great area and of course has a Met station. The main thing about Hokitika is the rain... the annual average total is more than 10 times my current location!

Cheers and Beers (or Salutations and Merlot, as the case may be...)
Myself
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Re: Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by Myself »

No met station in Nelson? What about the airport?

I think manual observers are being phased out in favour of automatics.
OzMike
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Re: Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by OzMike »

I'm talking upper air stations (the one that send up balloons).

There are only 6 now ("mainland" NZ) being Hokitika, Invercargill, stations near Wellington and Auckland, as well as New Plymouth and Gisborne (I think). Of these only Invercargill, Whenuapai and Paraparaumu send up sondes (the others being wind-only). Christchurch closed down for some reason (cost-cutting, no doubt) and so did several others elsewhere.

Raoul Is and Chathams still do upper air as well. Don't know what happened to Campbell Is. Raoul apparently done by "Parks and Wildlife" types who go there for 6 month stints.

Surface synoptic and airfield weather reports are going automatic everywhere. Not that I trust visibilty and cloud height instruments, but in the long run they're a lot cheaper than human observers.
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NZstorm
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Re: Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by NZstorm »

Hi Ozmike, I guessed you would be referring to the upper air work. You need to contact the Met Service at Kelburn, Wellington. The stations you mention above are the complete list.
Myself
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Re: Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by Myself »

Think Kermadec and Chathams do it only once a day as opposed to twice, so potentially less work there?

Good luck to you, it's refreshing to hear of someone wanting to move to NZ as opposed to Aussie!
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Re: Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by Myself »

OzMike wrote:Not that I trust visibilty and cloud height instruments, but in the long run they're a lot cheaper than human observers.
Yes I don't trust either. Vis is fine for in fog, the rest of the time it overdoes it. Cloud amount....well if a single cloud passes over the ceilerometer (spelling) on an otherwise clear day it will stuff things up.
I think their heights though are actually quite reasonable.
OzMike
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Re: Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by OzMike »

Myself wrote: Yes I don't trust either. Vis is fine for in fog, the rest of the time it overdoes it. Cloud amount....well if a single cloud passes over the ceilerometer (spelling) on an otherwise clear day it will stuff things up.
I think their heights though are actually quite reasonable.
Cloud base ceilometers are OK for cloud height as long as the beam hits the base of Cu. If not, they give erroneous bases and/or non-existent multiple cloud bases. The can overestimate oktas if a cloud sits above the beam, and of course any cloud nees to pass through the beam for a reading.

Vis meters are useful in fog as long as the bank is representative of the general area. A frequent problem is fog forming (even here in the desert) in low-lying areas visible only to the human observer. A TAF is issued with no mention of fog (although forecaster might suspect fog from DP depression), plane sets off, near landing the fog thickens and rolls onto the runway. Plane can't land, goes to alternate, everybody cheesed off :|
OzMike
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Re: Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by OzMike »

Myself wrote:Think Kermadec and Chathams do it only once a day as opposed to twice, so potentially less work there?

Good luck to you, it's refreshing to hear of someone wanting to move to NZ as opposed to Aussie!
Yes, potentially less work, but have no desire to move to Chathams, and Kermadec operation run by your equivalent of Parks and Wildlife who send people up there for 6-month stints where, I believe, they mainly spend their time chopping weeds. The balloon flights are paid for by MetService, and as you say, only one per day.

As an interesting aside the Raoul Is station was one of the first in the world to use a HOGEN for gas generation. As I used one of these units on Norfolk Island for 3 years (and had heaps of trouble with it, mostly due to poor installation, or rather, poor building in which to site it) I wondered how the hell they kept the unit on Raoul going (considering Norfolk has an aerodrome and techs could fly in within a day or two).

I'm a true-blue Aussie and love this country, but frankly, all the nice places now have ridiculously priced real estate, and I loathe the hot summers (making Exmouth, with 40+C possible, and indeed common, from November through to March, a real trial :crazy: ). However, I'm not settled here or indeed anywhere but on a 2-3 year posting (since our Met Bureau very sensibly remains in government hands) and got to enjoy several stints on lovely Norfolk Island along with some less salubrious locations.

NZ has a range of landscapes unavailable here and having seen a great deal of this huge country, look forward to sharp mountains, lakes with water in them, and whitebait fritters.
OzMike
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Re: Metservice observations contractor jobs

Unread post by OzMike »

I found out something interesting last night: the Tsunami Warning station at Jackson Bay is owned and run by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. One of our tTechs was over there recently. Apparently the unit is very similar to the next generation of AWS rolling out in this country (can do SPECIS for VIS, CLD etc, which no AWS here can do as yet, not that I would be overly happy with AWS generated SPECIS except for the present wind and temp automatic SPECIS).

The same Tech was here completing installation of the Tsunami station in Exmouth.
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