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Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 27/02/2019 10:49
by Razor
From Metservice Fb... "Message from MetService:
"Our Canterbury Radar is undergoing maintenance from Thursday 28 February for approximately three weeks. The radar will be offline while scaffolding and painting works take place. During this time our website will display a composite image of nearby radars, but accuracy will be reduced for the Canterbury area.""
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 27/02/2019 10:50
by Razor
Its probably not going to rain much if it all anyway in that time
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 27/02/2019 11:50
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
I see MS Rakaia radar is going to off-line, yet again, for maintenance from Thursday.
They seem to have lots of problems with this radar, with it being down for maintenance quite often, more such than other rain radars around the country?
abridged from my deleted post 2019 MS Website thread.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Thu 28/02/2019 14:53
by Orion
Ah well, we'll just have to go back to getting weather reports from the lighthouse-keepers...
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Thu 28/02/2019 19:23
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
Might as well get rid of it and have a new combined Canterbury/Otago radar located somewhere around the Timaru/Oamaru area?
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Tue 26/03/2019 09:47
by Razor
Its now been 4 weeks, anyone got any intel as to when our radar will be back up?
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Tue 26/03/2019 21:25
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
Who knows?
May never come back on-line.
Must be serious to be off-line for this length of time.
It's a wonder MS haven't put out any updates/progress on the work on this radar?
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Tue 26/03/2019 22:43
by Flutterbye
NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: ↑Tue 26/03/2019 21:25
Who knows?
May never come back on-line.
Must be serious to be off-line for this length of time.
It's a wonder MS haven't put out any updates/progress on the work on this radar?
Someone mentioned the Canterbury radar to Metservice on their FB page today. 'Plan is by next week but it's weather dependent'
Definitely been off for a long time, even the Southland radar was never off that long during all it's breakdowns!
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Tue 26/03/2019 22:50
by tgsnoopy
I recall they were erecting scaffolding around the radome. Not sure if they were just painting it of doing repairs. Radar can't operate until that's dismantled. Maybe they found issues that are taking time to resolve.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 27/03/2019 09:22
by Matt Pearce
The repainting work is nearing completion...we expect to be able to restore the radar to service sometime on Friday at this stage.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 27/03/2019 16:20
by 03Stormchaser
Matt Pearce wrote:The repainting work is nearing completion...we expect to be able to restore the radar to service sometime on Friday at this stage.
Good to hear. Potential gust front could be missed this afternoon. Now I have to look out the window...
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 27/03/2019 16:43
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
03Stormchaser wrote: ↑Wed 27/03/2019 16:20
Matt Pearce wrote:The repainting work is nearing completion...we expect to be able to restore the radar to service sometime on Friday at this stage.
Good to hear. Potential gust front could be missed this afternoon. Now I have to look out the window...
It looks like a dry one, Steve, so no worries there
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Fri 29/03/2019 16:34
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
Horray, the radar is back on line.
Hope it works really well after the new coat of paint and whatever they did with it?
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Fri 29/03/2019 18:11
by Richard
Oh good work John, thanks.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 26/06/2019 17:29
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
Just thinking.
With these anticyclones, it would be a good time for MS to clean out,paint, do maintenence/upgrading on their doppler rain radars rather than doing it in periods of severe weather?
...but then you have to think of funding, maintenance costs and finance at the time, I suppose.
They are expensive things to build and operate/maintain.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 26/06/2019 19:53
by melja
Seriously, you think they can just book in a few weeks fine weather.
Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Wed 26/06/2019 22:13
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
melja wrote: ↑Wed 26/06/2019 19:53
Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk
Yes. They are the weather forecasters.
Should know the conditions to update their outsite weather equipment.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Thu 11/07/2019 23:17
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: ↑Thu 28/02/2019 19:23
Might as well get rid of it and have a new combined Canterbury/Otago radar located somewhere around the Timaru/Oamaru area?
I see in the ODT today, that MS are going to build a rain radar in Hindon near the Tairei Plains next yesr with it operating by May 2020. Good news.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Sat 20/07/2019 18:49
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: ↑Thu 11/07/2019 23:17
I see in the ODT today, that MS are going to build a rain radar in Hindon near the Tairei Plains next yesr with it operating by May 2020. Good news.
There has been another topic created about this.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Tue 06/08/2019 21:04
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
I see the radar at Rakaia is off-line , yet again at the moment.
I don't what is wrong with it. Seemed to be OK when I visited the site a couple of months ago.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Tue 06/08/2019 21:11
by Orion
From the webpage:
Our Canterbury radar is undergoing urgent maintenance and will be offline until further notice. During this time our website will display a composite image from nearby radars, but accuracy will be reduced for the Canterbury area.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Tue 06/08/2019 22:43
by NZ Thunderstorm Soc
Orion wrote: ↑Tue 06/08/2019 21:11
From the webpage:
Our Canterbury radar is undergoing urgent maintenance and will be offline until further notice. During this time our website will display a composite image from nearby radars, but accuracy will be reduced for the Canterbury area.
yes.. but, they said that months ago when it was going doing maintenance.
Must be a crook doppler ?
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Thu 08/08/2019 09:23
by Matt Pearce
The radar suffered a failed elevation gearbox. This is a fairly rare part to fail, so a spare was not immediately available on-site. The people and equipment required to swap out the failed part are now onsite at Rakaia. We expect the job to take approximately 2 days so we are anticipating having the radar up and running again late on Saturday, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Thu 08/08/2019 10:03
by TonyT
Matt Pearce wrote: ↑Thu 08/08/2019 09:23
The radar suffered a failed elevation gearbox. This is a fairly rare part to fail, so a spare was not immediately available on-site. The people and equipment required to swap out the failed part are now onsite at Rakaia. We expect the job to take approximately 2 days so we are anticipating having the radar up and running again late on Saturday, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
Quite a number of us suffer from a failed elevation gearbox as we grow older, but there are pills which can help.
(Mods feel free to move to the Joke thread if inappropriate here).
Re: Canterbury Radar going offline
Posted: Sat 10/08/2019 12:13
by Chris W
Looks to be back up and running