MetService Website (2011)

[Storm Struck]

What a fantastic rain radar set up, much more zoomed in and detailed will give us chasers a better chance of knowing where the storms are more to location on the actual map.
I cant wait to see it in action on the west coast when theres thunderstorms over there.

[Manukau heads obs]

that westland radar is going to be real interesting alright
real up to date too...just looked now...image only 7 minutes old!

[Tahii]

I must say though, I didn't even realise the Westland radar was up on there. I was expecting a long run-in period after build, like Mahia and the like - not even a note on the front page of MetConnect as to the new addition. Oh well, there goes another upper air station

[Tornado Tim]

Good that its up but it seems a little too far zoomed out.
Also I prefer those complete transparent images not that yuck tannish colour overlay, why on earth did they add that for! If they wanted to show where the radar coverage stopped they should have added a border instead of an overlay.

They also need to fix the colour scheme of the radar, it should be like the US and Australian Radars are.

[Manukau heads obs]

like the australian one for clour scheme?
dunno about that...the australian ones never seem to show heavy rain much...

anyway, I would not be complaining, I think its great
Kudos to M/S

[Tornado Tim]

I know now I am being picky, good stuff metservice

Anyway I can get rid of horrible Tan colour by making a php script to take it out

Re Aus Radars: The colour scheme is good but its the colours that are attributed to the different DBZ values that are the problem.

[Tahii]

Anyway I can get rid of horrible Tan colour by making a php script to take it out

Good luck - they're individual jpeg images! *edit* Ok, my bad, the radar is just an overlay - nice!

Has anyone seen what happens when a radar goes offline? Does that area darken, go black, or just stay as it is? I haven't been on within an hour of a balloon flight ending to find out.

[jamie]

wikid stuff. Love the west coast radar. its full of blind spots though. bet they had a hard time finding the best spot for it.

westcoast is showing up on the metconnect account i use on the full country image but still no individual radar option. im sure it will appear in due course.

im impressed at how quickly and silently this has all happened.

Thankyou MS!

[Tahii]

wikid stuff. Love the west coast radar. its full of blind spots though. bet they had a hard time finding the best spot for it.

westcoast is showing up on the metconnect account i use on the full country image but still no individual radar option. im sure it will appear in due course.

I'm going to assume the West Coast radar will be a bit strange for a while - its only once they're working you can identify things that need filtered out, and the like.

As for metconnect, unless you're specifically paying for "all radars", you'd have to add the west coast to your account before you'd see it.

[Storm Struck]

I wonder where the radar station is set up on the coast? maybe somewhere simular to Denniston very open to the coastline west and north without not too many hills in the way.

[tunster]

I wonder where the radar station is set up on the coast? maybe somewhere simular to Denniston very open to the coastline west and north without not too many hills in the way.

Blue Spur Range, 8km inland from Hokitika.

[Manukau heads obs]

Blue Spur Range, 8km inland from Hokitika.

cool,Ricky and I had worked out it must have been just inland from Hokitika

[Nev]

The news certainly seems to have gone under the media's radar, apart from this...

'Weather radar' to scour West Coast skies - Greymouth Star

and this
Radar service an asset in wild week - The Press

[igaquo1]

Looks very good. a outline of the coast and major lakes would be good tho.

[Razor]

FANTASTIC

[bmo]

I had to see it to belief it and now I can! Thank you M/S

[Tahii]

Next time I'm talking to Tony Quale, I'll pass it on that everyone's happy with the change

[Tornado Tim]

Here is a post from Metservice's PR Blog:

RAIN RADAR IN REAL TIME ON METSERVICE WEBSITE
November 24, 2011

Today MetService launched real-time rain radar coverage of New Zealand on its website, metservice.com. For the last hour, images are every 7.5 minutes – the time it takes for each radar to go through one scan of its coverage area and send back an image – which means the images are effectively updated in real time.

“This is the culmination of a substantial project to investigate and test how we could make our rain radar coverage on the website even more useful to the New Zealand public,” said MetService deputy chief executive Mark Ottaway.

Previously, rain radar on the site updated hourly for the last eight hours.Following extensive investigation into enhancements of the product for public use, MetService first trialled more frequently updated radar coverage over Christchurch after February’s earthquake. The systems worked well for the trial and the team received a lot of positive feedback, so the company decided to continue the project and invest in a permanent solution for the entire country. A second step-up came with the grounding of the Rena, where MetService took the opportunity to test a further enhanced service over the Bay of Plenty region.

“Our trials confirmed that we could provide additional peace of mind to the public with a more immediate view of incoming rain,” said Ottaway.”While rain radar data are just part of a wide range of inputs necessary to make good weather forecasts and decisions, MetService is always looking at ways to provide more information to those who are interested – particularly to the public through metservice.com.”

As of today coverage is now nationwide, providing real-time updates for the last hour and hourly updates for the previous eight hours.

For further information please contact:
Jacqui Bridges General Manager Communications 04 4700777

http://metpr.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/r ... e-website/

[iomkiwi]

Next time I'm talking to Tony Quale, I'll pass it on that everyone's happy with the change

I've already passed on that message in an email (and from his reply I suspect he may have had a look around here )

[Tahii]

Next time I'm talking to Tony Quale, I'll pass it on that everyone's happy with the change

I've already passed on that message in an email (and from his reply I suspect he may have had a look around here )

I'd better be careful how much I tell you folks in the future then .

[Nev]

Good that its up but it seems a little too far zoomed out.
Also I prefer those complete transparent images not that yuck tannish colour overlay, why on earth did they add that for! If they wanted to show where the radar coverage stopped they should have added a border instead of an overlay.

They also need to fix the colour scheme of the radar, it should be like the US and Australian Radars are.

Don't want to appear ungrateful, but I completely agree with Tim.

I think the current colour scheme looks rather drab and could do with a total rethink. Personally I prefer Weatherzone NZ's choice of more vibrant colours, where even the lightest precipitation seems to show up more clearly.

I also wonder why only BoP and Canty have the 128km option? Given a choice, I'd take the 128km scans over the 300km ones. Even Weatherzone NZ's 3 main centres currently appear to show more detail. Note that BoM's Aussie radars actually have 3 zoom options (not to mention a range of other optional overlays).

And, although I know some will disagree, even if it meant sacrificing 7.5 minute scans for 15 minute ones, I personally think 'realtime' scans covering two hours rather than just one would be more helpful.

Just a bit of constructive criticism and perhaps I'm asking a bit much, but those are just my thoughts.

[Manukau heads obs]

you are never going to please everyone
I am just gratefull for what is being provided, personally

[Tahii]

Don't want to appear ungrateful

Sorry, but thats how it appears to me.

If you want the nice shiny version, all the zoom-in stuff, longer scans, purchase a login to metconnect. If they give away too much for free, noone will want the pay version.

I should say in Metconnect there's still an overlay showing the circular theoretical boundaries of the radar, although its the same old colour scheme.

If you want this and that and the other, either set up a PHP script to alter the colours onto your own overlays, or purchase a MetConnect login.

[Nev]

Crikey.. bit of an overreaction methinks.

I've already complemented MS on their new set-up, and I'm not necessarily suggesting any more bells and whistles than we've already got, just that there could be room for improvement on what's already on offer. I was also wondering why not all regions have the 128km option...perhaps they're yet to be introduced?

Re colours, surely if they were made more attractive and user-friendly for the general public, they'd get more bites and therefore generate more ad-revenue? A friend once commented sometime ago that he never looked at MS's radar page because the images were way too small and he couldn't work out what was going on. Note that Weatherzone NZ's images are also free.

Without any constructive feedback, which I'm sure MS would appreciate, the status-quo would inevitably remain.

[Tornado Tim]

Don't want to appear ungrateful

If you want this and that and the other, either set up a PHP script to alter the colours onto your own overlays, or purchase a MetConnect login.

PHP scripts work for colour replacement but when your dealing with 100's of colours and you have ID each shade and tell it to replace it with another it becomes very difficult.

Taking out the Tan overlay is very easy but to replace the DBZ reflectivity is very hard (I have already tried to do this and it only partially worked)

I am going to back up Nev here, The DBZ reflectivity colours should be at industry standard (nearly everyone else has got them at that colour set)
It is not that hard to change the colour scheme anyway, all they have to do is set some new colours in the GIS application that they are using for the radar.

I appreciate what Metservice has done but they should ideally change the colour scheme. As Nev says its constructive feedback.

If you want the nice shiny version, all the zoom-in stuff, longer scans, purchase a login to metconnect. If they give away too much for free, noone will want the pay version.

You cant honestly expect someone to pay $300 an month for that can you.(and thats only the basic package for goodness sake!)
Anyways Metconnect is a B2B tool and not a B2C tool