A very good “STUFF” Editorial I missed a year ago.
I often comment on NZ weather and climate issues but getting hold of basic data and map presentations as can be easily found for Australia at the BoM www site – is time consuming and near impossible for NZ. As STUFF says “We believe public weather data should be just that – public.” Amen to that.
In terms of normal weather forecasting NZ could probably get rid of much of their duplicated structure (MetService – NIWA) and use the COLA maps www feed from New York.
Either way, both agencies are useless. One can get a better weather forecast by looking out the window.
The only useful thing is the rain radar, which is not a prediction but an observation.
Cheers
Roger
www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com