Metservice Website

[tgsnoopy]

I see it's running at a pathetic crawl again this morning.

It's about time something was done about this

[tunster]

Is it running faster now?

[NZstorm]

Would have been a rush of Wellingtonians looking at the sevens weather no doubt.

[spike_01]

Would have been a rush of Wellingtonians looking at the sevens weather no doubt.

Nah all us here knew the weather was perfect for the 7's..

[tgsnoopy]

If just one city can cause it, then the situation would have been worse than I feared.

[Dale]

I dont use the site unless absolutely necessary for that reason, it is bloody hopeless when a puff of wind blows & is a really really bad look on them in general. Nothing has changed in at least 2 years except the layout itself but most of the info I use I can also get from other sources.

[Michael]

I use it mainly for the rain forecast but not to look at rain but instead the wind direction and strength forecasted the next 7 days.if it was for rain use the radar.

[Manukau heads obs]

must depend on the time its viewed
its OK when I view it (usually early morning)

[Richard]

On the MS website there Computer Generated Days 4-10 Forecast reads that Timaru temps as 18 Thu,19 Fri,20 Sat,17 Sun,17Mon,18 Tue and 18 Wed,but have Waipara 14 Thu,15 Fri,17 Sat,12 Sun 10 Mon,11 Tue and 10 Wed.
How on earth has there computer come up with these figures when in fact they should be the other way around given that Timaru temps are more influenced by the sea breeze cooling than Waipara.

[snowstormwatcher]

Metservice rural long range forcast is very unreliable ive often seen them forcasting rain for 5 or 6 days on the canterbury plains rural forcast and then the next day there forcasting completly fine weather the next 10 days. Ive also noticed the often have a high chance of rain predicted yet there forcasting a fine day. As for there temperture forcast often the timaru temperture forcast on the rural page doesnt match the temperture forcast on the town page.

[melja]

Yeah its a load of rubbish, no use to anyone and why in earth do they fill up room on ther web site with it.
Why not get get rid of the automatic computer forcast and put a real 7 or 10 day rural forcast.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Maybe it's a robot there giving out the forecasts, rather than a person?

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Tornado Tim]

This phrase comes to mind

You can't please everyone!

Reference for the forecasts:

Maybe it's a robot there giving out the forecasts, rather than a person?

M/S moderate there forecasts up to 4 days, from then on it is made by computer software.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

from then on it is made by computer software.

Well, that explains it

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Richard]

This phrase comes to mind

You can't please everyone!

Reference for the forecasts:

Maybe it's a robot there giving out the forecasts, rather than a person?

M/S moderate there forecasts up to 4 days,from then on it is made by computer software.

well if they moderate the first 4 days why cant they do the full 10 days

[Tornado Tim]

well if they moderate the first 4 days why cant they do the full 10 days

ask them not me, LOL

[Richard]

Its getting worse,they've got Waipara now on 5C max by next weekend with fine weather,makes me wonder how they ever managed to successfully grow wine there.

[Manukau heads obs]

some of the models at one stage showed a very cold SSE with a deep low near east cape, flowing onto the lower NI
so that is why

[Richard]

But not 5C,that's middle the winter stuff that is,but at the same time have the other Canterbury rural centers on 12

[Manukau heads obs]

could happen due to barometer drop causing cooling and coupled with overcast and rain

but that situation is not likely now, instead a milder onshore easterly

I do not get hung up on forecasted max/min temperature myself

[Razor]

I'm with richard- if they said FINE and 5 degrees max, thats just poor proof reading, surely.

[Tornado Tim]

As I said previously, they dont moderate there forecast, until its is within a 4 day period.
Just dont take those forecasts past 4 days too seriously, they just outline at a glance what may happen.

[Razor]

It begs the question- why bother putting such useless information up at all. It smacks of laziness!

[melja]

A glance at what might happen, yeah right it might be 5C! I DONT THINK SO.
Its ment to be a help for farmers that rural forcast but i cant see how forcasting such bulls#*t can be of any help to them at all and to think we pay for that crap too .

[Philip Duncan]

Really interesting debate guys. As some of you may know WeatherWatch was ahead of MS to bring in the 10 day forecast... we moderated all the days, as often as we could at least, but still found the last few days wildly inaccurate. I was blown away with our recent survey where we asked if you would prefer a 10 day forecast or a more detailed, accurate, 5 day one... from memory about 90% said they wanted a 5 day one. So that's why we've changed.

NZ is just small and mountainous to predict 10 days out with too much accuracy...we can get a rough idea - wind flow etc...but too hard to accurately pick highs, rainfall etc.

In Canada they do 14 day forecasts, they are pretty bad too and they are a giant land mass, so you'd think less excuses to get it wrong!