Meteorologists slam BoM after wild Qld storms
Source: Instagram/gimme_the_loot
The weather bureau launched its first major website overhaul in 12 years last Wednesday, describing it as a “modern and sleek” redesign aimed at making weather updates clearer and easier to access.
However, residents in storm-affected areas claim the site is difficult to use and left them with little warning ahead of Sunday’s deluges.
Savage storms hit much of Queensland’s south-east on Sunday, delivering lashing rain, lightning and hail, and leaving tens of thousands without power.
Meteorologist Anthony Cornelius took to social media to add his disapproval of the site in a lengthy post.
Cornelius said he had “tried very hard not to weigh in on the BoM’s new website rollout”, but felt moved to comment after a flood of emails and messages from people caught unaware by Brisbane and Ipswich storms.
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He said the concerns were linked mainly to three issues:
- The new radar on the BoM website underestimated the intensity of the storm, resulting in people unaware of its true strength.
- The new radar was “lagging” – with many saying the storm was over them well before the bureau’s website said it was.
- The new design meant that they couldn’t find the information they needed to when they needed it.
Cornelius said it “beggars belief that the BOM would roll out such a significant change to an essential infrastructure service just as the main storm season is about to start”.
“In the past 25 years working as a meteorologist, I’ve NEVER seen the BoM do an update or upgrade during a major severe weather event,” he said.
“In essence, the new website should only have been pushed live during a climatologically quiet and stable time of the year.”
“Another glaring issue from the recent Bureau of Meteorology website upgrade is the new radar colour scheme,” Auden said.
“While it’s never been properly defined, we’ve always had a rule of thumb that black on the radar means hail, and it’s worked pretty well over the years.”
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Auden said the new radar view had essentially clipped the top end of the scale at orange so users couldn’t see any detail in the biggest storms.
“This left a lot of people in the dark about the threat to their homes during the height of the severe weather yesterday,” he said.
The damning assessments follow a wave of disapproval and confusion when the site was rolled out last week.
“The new website is useless. Tried checking for storm forecasts yesterday and can’t find anything. Can’t even find the radar maps — totally useless,” one Facebook commenter said.
Rogue Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce echoed the sentiment in a Facebook post.
“Asking the question on every farmer’s lips, what on earth has happened to the new BOM website, our beloved old site has been ‘updated’ to virtually useless,” the former deputy PM said.
If the face of criticism, BoM senior meteorologist Angus Hines defended the upgrade, telling ABC Radio last week that while the redesign “might take some getting used to”, all the important information remained.
“It looks a bit different, it plays a bit different, but all the important information is still there, you might just have to find it in a slightly different way,” Hines said.
BoM acting CEO Peter Stone said last Wednesday the new site was developed with community consultation and aimed to make it easier for Australians to access daily updates and warnings, which are viewed more than 2.6 billion times each year.
The bureau expects user feedback to help to shape future improvements.
