Mahia Weather Radar

[Weather Watcher]

Here is a press release issued by MetService this afternoon regarding the new weather radar which will be installed on Mahia Peninsula later this year...

Issued at 1:40pm 3-Apr-2009

METSERVICE MAHIA RADAR PROJECT LAUNCHED WITH LOCAL IWI BLESSING

Construction of MetService's new Mahia weather radar will be launched with a blessing ceremony conducted by local iwi Rongomaiwahine on Saturday 4 April.

Resource Consent approval for the project was received from Wairoa District Council this week.

MetService Project Director Tony Quayle says the new radar, which is to be constructed high on the Mahia Peninsula on the Ormond family's Kinikini Station, has received strong support from Kaiuku and neighbouring marae. "The reaction from local Maori and landowners has been very positive, and we are delighted to have the project launched with a ceremony in keeping with local traditions" Mr Quayle said.

"This will provide a valuable extension to our network", commented MetService General Manager of National Weather Services, Rod Stainer. "It will have a 300 kilometre range of view covering the East Coast of the North Island, the Gisborne and Hawke's Bay regions, and across the Urewera into central North Island." Mr Stainer went on to say that the radar will be immensely valuable for detecting areas of torrential rainfall allowing forecasters to provide some warning to local communities.

The Mahia radar is the second of five new radars (the first was in Taranaki,in 2008) being funded from MetService's contact with the Ministry of Transport to help provide data that will support the issuing of weather warnings for severe weather and severe thunderstorms. It is anticipated that the radar will be installed by the end of June and then its radar-rain maps will be freely available on the MetService's web site. Further radars will be installed in the Bay of Plenty, on the West Coast of the South Island, and in Northland, over the next three years.

[Tornado Tim]

Oh cool WW.
Good to see coverage is increasing.
WW(Weather Watcher), Do you think 1 will be installed more close to Hamilton?

[Weather Watcher]

Yes, it is planned to site the Bay of Plenty radar so that it provides good coverage of the Waikato/Taupo area as well as Bay of Plenty. At this stage however, the site for the Bay of Plenty radar hasn't been chosen.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Hooray for this. now the whole? of NZ will be covered.
I don't think that a radar should be installed near Hamilton as that region is well covered by the Auckland radar and possibly the future BOP one.
The West Coast of the South Island, because of it's high rainfall tally, is of upmost importance for an installation of a radar, so I hope it it is not too long for an installation. Would nice to see those sheets of rain coming in from off the Tasman Sea
JohnGaul
NZThS

[Myself]

It sounds like the Bay of Plenty one is next, and then the West Coast. So 2011 for the West Coast. I guess the Northland one will be as far north as possible.

[Manukau heads obs]

I don't think that a radar should be installed near Hamilton as that region is well covered by the Auckland radar

I disagree

Hamilton is towards the fringe of the auckland radar, and so is poorly covered

Its covered a bit better by the New Plymouth one though

[Dale]

What sort of information do we have about the current operating parameters of these radars.. W band, S band?
Topographical nightmare where they are located at present, they can only scan so much.

[Vertigo]

I don't think that a radar should be installed near Hamilton as that region is well covered by the Auckland radar

I disagree

Hamilton is towards the fringe of the auckland radar, and so is poorly covered

Its covered a bit better by the New Plymouth one though

i think a combination of the auckland, new plymouth, and future bay of plenty radars should provide ample coverage for the central north island. theres room to improve, with say a radar near (or on top!) ruapehu, but theres more pressing locations such as the west coast and northland.

[Myself]

What sort of information do we have about the current operating parameters of these radars.. W band, S band?
Topographical nightmare where they are located at present, they can only scan so much.

Invercargill and Christchurch radars must have the most beam blocking, that's the South Island for you though!
I think the Auckland one is pretty good actually, it's on Mt Tamahunga. Wellington's is also not too bad. Probably it's on the highest feasible point in the region. New Plymouth seems a good one too.
New Zealand is a topographical nightmare, not the radar positions.

[Nev]

Yes, the 'Auckland Radar' is actually about 60km N of downtown Akld on Mt Tamahunga in Warkworth and about 450m asl. Which means it's also about 100km N of the Bombay Hills (370m asl) and about 170 km N of Hamilton City. And although the radar's high-res scan range is 240km and low-res scan range 480km, the beam probably wouldn't see anything in Hamilton below about 3,000m to 4,000m, due to the curvature of the earth. Plus, very heavy precipitation could block echoes from precipitation that is further away from the radar. Interestingly, Kaitaia is almost the same distance from the radar as Hamilton, but the Brynderwyn Hills are only about 40 km further N and about 300m asl.

[ricky]

What sort of information do we have about the current operating parameters of these radars.. W band, S band?

Spectrum Online shows the licences are for around 5.6GHz Hpol and allow for phenomenal peak powers 99.6dBW! What band is that? must have its own designation though broadly top of C..

[Razor]

Cripes the west coast woould be a nightmare to cover, its surely not possible given the topography to get anything more than patchy coverage?

[Manukau heads obs]

westport, cape Foulwind, which sticks out, would be the spot I would think, then it would get a view down the coast

[Weather Watcher]

Spectrum Online shows the licences are for around 5.6GHz Hpol and allow for phenomenal peak powers 99.6dBW! What band is that? must have its own designation though broadly top of C..

We just call it C-Band. Most operational weather radars are either C Band or S Band. S band radars are less prone to attenuation in heavy rain, but cost twice as much. All the weather (rain) radars in NZ are C band.