Who gets on the weather map
If 1News put every town on the weather map that people asked for, they’d end up with a 10-minute long broadcast and graphics that look like a ‘‘dog’s dinner’’.
Broadcast meteorologist Dan Corbett said places like Picton – which hopes to soon be added to Metservice’s maps thanks to a new weather station – was one of many towns that people asked to have added to the weather.
But there is a range of criteria when it comes to adding a town.
‘‘One of those is population. It’s a very, very small part. The other is where they happen to sort of sit in relation to other locations, and more important one of course is, if it’s a forecast place, is the forecast actually produced by Metservice.
‘‘We have some locations that would love to be on the map there is no forecast provided [for] them.
‘‘Another factor – and it might sound almost trivial and insignificant to the viewer – is how does it fit in relation to another place, particularly if the other place is close – because our graphics team build the graphics and you couldn’t really have all these places because people wouldn’t be able to see them.
‘‘It can’t just be a dog’s dinner, it’s got to look nice and then for us as presenters, broadcast meteorologists, we have to be able to convey and tell the story, so if you’ve got 400 places in a small region, you can’t sit there and go through every single one.
The broadcaster did listen to feedback from viewers and ‘‘Time-to-time we do add other places, I think we added Stewart Island – so it’s always a case of how it can fit in.’’
Tauranga was also added in recent years, gaining a weather ‘‘hover’’ – or focus – as it was a growing city. ‘‘What it comes down to is the places on the website are places we write specific forecasts for, says Metservice communications meteorologist Lisa Murray.
‘‘There’s also, ‘is it legible if we have too many names?’’’
Making the weather map on the main page user-friendly was a major factor determining what towns were displayed.
She wasn’t aware of any ‘‘criteria’’ or population requirement for a town to get on the map.
Broader, region-wide forecasts were available on other sections of the site.
‘‘There is a process of a redesign [going on] to adopt a more graphical representation of the weather conditions rather than a list,’’ she said.
Metservice’s website states: ‘‘Unfortunately Metservice is currently unable to provide a localised forecast for every location in New Zealand.
‘‘The various forecasts provided for the public on metservice.com and through other channels are made possible by funding from a variety of sources, but unfortunately we do not have funding for all locations.
‘‘Metservice continuously explores opportunities to increase its number of forecasts, so you are welcome to contact us to suggest your location.’’
In most cases official temperatures are recorded at airports to provide the most accurate current conditions for aviation, Metservice said.
This is the case Wellington, Timaru, Auckland, Christchurch and most of the main town and cities.
On the Niwa weather website there isn’t a map of the country available, however, it has a selection of 48 locations you can choose from to check the weather. Earlier in the year, Metservice meteorologist Brian Mercer said the forecasting agency was ‘‘frequently’’ bombarded by people claiming the temperature was hotter – or colder – than the official reading where they were.
‘‘People always want to win [with the hottest temperatures]. They want their town, specifically, to win. And quite often, some of our stations tend to be on the coast, because that’s where our airports are, and you will get sea breezes which cool things down,’’ Mercer said.
‘‘So you get legitimate cases where you would assume the temperatures would be a little bit warmer inland. But unless we have a verified and checked thermometer we can’t actually take that as a record.
‘‘Basically, with our weather stations there are specific standards which the WMO set for where you can place a weather station and how exactly you can take the temperature.’’