Otago weather radar construction delayed

CONSTRUCTION of a weather radar capable of covering the entire Otago region has been hit by a major delay.

It was hoped construction of the facility would start later this year and would be operational next year.

However, MetService senior communications meteorologist Lisa Murray said it was now estimated to be commissioned around May 2020.

‘‘The establishment of the Otago radar has been delayed due to the sale of the land that is our preferred site, in late 2017.

‘‘We are progressing negotiations with the new landowners.

‘‘Unfortunately, it means that we will not be able to use the summerautumn 2019 time window for construction of the radar, as originally planned.’’

Ms Murray said because of ongoing negotiations with the landowner, MetService was unable to confirm the exact location of the radar facility, but said ‘‘the preferred site is approximately 40km southwest of Dunedin’’.

That puts it somewhere between Balclutha and Waihola.

‘‘What I can tell you is the engineers will be looking for the best place to get the most coverage — on top of a hill.

‘‘Obviously, we can’t have a massively tall building or a huge forest or even a great big mountain right beside a radar because they need to have a good view.

‘‘A building like this is usually quite remote.’’

Dunedin has been covered by radars in Southland and Canterbury, but there have been calls since 2008 for the area to have its own.

The new weather radar was expected to take some of the guesswork out of pinpointing damaging storms around the region, such as the thunderstorm cell that hit Roxburgh in November last year.

Ms Murray said it was difficult to predict where a thunderstorm cell would pop up.

At present, meteorologists could only give a rough prediction of the places along the Southern Alps and inland areas that had ‘‘all the ingredients’’ for a thunderstorm.

She said the difference a radar would make was that meteorologists could track an individual storm cell within 150km of the facility, and make a more precise judgement about when and where it would hit.

As a result, alerts or warnings could be sent to local councils and Civil Defence, and to residents via social media.

❛ Obviously we can’t have a massively tall building or a huge

forest or even a great big mountain right beside a radar because they need to have a good view