Picton’s on the (weather) map

PICTON

Picton has finally made

(weather) map.

For years, the portside town has been ignored, outshone by the likes of Blenheim, Wellington and Nelson when it comes to the daily forecast.

Now, it’s hoped a new weather station will lift its profile with tourists, by allowing it to appear on the Metservice weather maps.

Picton and Marlborough Sounds Tourism Group member Helen Neighbour-cone spearheaded the weather station idea, and said her husband first came up with it about two years ago. ‘‘He used to look at the weather forecast on the television and think ‘why are other small towns on the map, but Picton, which is important, not mentioned?’

‘‘Picton needs to be recognised more and a simple it on to the way of doing that is getting us on the weather map. The town would be mentioned several times a day.’’

Blenheim, Wellington and Nelson are marked on the map, but are climatically different to Picton and the Marlborough Sounds, with Picton recording about double Blenheim’s rainfall. Construction on the weather station had already begun at Waitohi Domain, off Dublin St, with the placement of a pad for the station. A security fence would be installed over the coming weeks, followed by the wind mast and other equipment.

Marlborough District Council hydrologist Val Wadsworth, who headed the weather station project, said the site could just be ‘‘one month away from completion’’.

The station would ‘‘measure rainfall, wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity and barometric pressure’’ using equipment that complied with the National Environmental Monitoring Standards, Wadsworth said.

‘‘Long-term, data from the weather station would allow us to see trends in the weather,’’ Wadsworth said.

‘‘It’s prime function would be to record rainfall so that we know when we might have issues with stormwater runoff from Picton.

‘‘Residents in the area also want to profile the community and refer people to Picton, by saying how nice the weather is.’’

It’s hoped the station would feed data to the Metservice map for its national weather forecasting services.

The council said late last year that it wouldn’t front the money for a weather station until Picton and Marlborough Sounds Tourism Group could confirm national media would include the town on its weather maps.

The Picton tourism group first brought the station proposal to council last year.

Auckland-based marketer Rob Davis offered his services free of charge, to put their case forward to television stations. Davis made presentations to TVNZ and TV3, as well as approaching radio stations and entered further discussions with the Metservice.

In the end, NZME said it would use data from the station for its radio and newspapers, which was the go-ahead council needed to allot up to $25,000 for the station’s construction.

Wadsworth said he didn’t know what the budget was at the moment, as earthworks for the station were lumped in with the truck park.

Council staff also recommended contributing $5500 a year to cover operating costs, subject to a more detailed assessment being undertaken of Metservice and media requirements. However, the recommendation to council suggested other science agencies could also contribute to the station’s ongoing costs.

If added, Picton would not be the smallest town on the Metservice map. Reefton, with a population of about 1000, was included.

Councillor Nadine Taylor said she thought the station was a ‘‘noble and practical’’ idea.

‘‘Ferry passengers often say that they tried looking up the weather in Picton before they landed, but all they could find was Blenheim,’’ Taylor said.

‘‘It was a pleasant surprise when they came forward with the idea of building Picton a weather station.’’