‘Putting lives at risk’: Premier, Treasurer slam BOM website
Queensland’s most senior politicians have joined in criticism of the Bureau of Meteorology’s website redesign, telling state parliament on Tuesday it could put lives at risk.
Premier David Crisafulli has joined in criticism of the Bureau of Meteorology’s website redesign, which is widely seen to have failed its first major test.
Thousands of Queenslanders have complained of usability issues relating to the new $4.1m redesign after they were left confused about the true severity of Sunday’s major storm that damaged homes and shut schools.
Sunday’s storm has since been declared a “significant event” by the Insurance Council of Australia, with insurers receiving 11,000 claims in the 48 hours after it.
Sunday’s event, which left as many as 100,000 properties without power, may be escalated to an “insurance catastrophe” if there is a significant increase in claims or if the geographical spread of this event is extended or in consultation with insurers.
Mr Crisafulli on Tuesday said the website changes need to be reversed and Treasurer David Janetzki has written to federal Environment Minister Murray Watt to warn BOM’s flawed website could put lives at risk.
“The decision to make the site live on 22 October - just as Queensland and Australia enter storm season can, at its best, be described as short sighted, while at its worst, it has put the lives and safety of Queenslanders at risk,” Mr Janetzki said.
Mr Janetzki noted the severity of Sunday’s storms, which delivered large hail, lightning strikes and fallen power lines, shocked Queenslanders.
THE BUREAU COULD HAVE BETTER EXPLAINED THE CHANGES, ESPECIALLY AT THIS CRITICAL TIME OF YEAR. READ TODAY’S EDITORIAL AND JOIN THE DISCUSSION
“Many of whom felt surprised by the sudden rainfall and lightning amidst a lack of accessible information on the new BOM website,” he said.
“The new website suffers from critical flaws.
“For example, as reported in The Courier-Mail Caboolture, a growing area of the South East corner - has disappeared as a locator on the BOM map, while the strength and associated colour coding of storms has changed significantly.”
The energy minister said Queenslanders could have been caught in wild weather, unaware of fallen power lines and debris over roads.
“Queenslanders, too, must be prepared for the possibility of power outages at their home after a storm - something that cannot be done if they do not know a storm is coming,” he said.
“Any updates to a website as vital and as widely relied upon as the BOM’s must be done with enough time for the public to become familiar with the changes, and ensure that access to critical information is quick and easy. None of the changes made achieve either of these objectives.
“I urge you to consider the ongoing impact of changes made to the website and consider options to improve accessibility of information at this critical time.”
The Premier said the new website didn’t allow for residents to prepare for Sunday’s storm.
“Queenslanders always show their resilience in these events, but preparation is the key,” he said.
“That preparation depends on the information available to us, and the changes to the federally-run Bureau of Meteorology website are not good enough.
Even one of the weather bureau’s own meteorologists has criticised the new site, admitting he is still using the old one.
An intense series of storms that tore through the southeast on Sunday unleashed winds of nearly 100km/h and giant hail 5cm in diameter, leaving 92,000 properties without power at the height of the event.
At least a dozen schools – 10 public and two independent — could not open on Monday as they had no electricity.
Mr Crisafulli told state parliament on Tuesday that Queenslanders were resilient, but needed to be able to easily access information about weather events.
“The changes on the website don’t make sense. The website is flawed,” he said.
It comes after South East Queensland on Monday sweltered through its equal hottest October day on record, with multiple centres topping 38C.
On the bureau’s old rain radar, black areas signified the most severe part of the storm, including hail.
But a new colour scale meant users assumed the weekend weather event would be weaker than it was.
The new radar also forced users to zoom in from a default overview of Australia, rather than allowing a quick zoom into a radius of 128km or 64km to cover all of the state’s southeast.
Some towns were wiped off the radar entirely, including Caboolture.
The redesigned website, which cost $4.1m, was launched last Wednesday and immediately panned by users.
But a bureau spokeswoman defended the design, saying the organisation had undertaken user research and testing, and that the new site had been available in beta for more than 15 months with feedback overwhelmingly positive.
She said a dip in customer satisfaction was to be expected as users familiarised themselves.
But even the bureau’s own employees are dissatisfied, with meteorologist Livio Regano admitting he was still using the old website.
“I don’t like it (the new website) myself,” he told ABC Radio on Monday
“It was never going to be a smooth transition to (a new version of) literally one of the most popular websites in Australia.
“In the end, it comes down to what we’re used to.
“A lot of people have complained about it being clunky for many years, and so the BOM has really just tried to satisfy the complaints – and now of course it’s generated a new lot of complaints.”
Weatherwatch managing director and meteorologist Anthony Cornelius said there were three main issues with the new site: the new radar colour scheme making people unaware of the storm’s true strength, a delay on what was shown, and a lack of the information users needed.
“The decision to push the site live on October 22 made no sense at all,’’ he said.
“It takes time for people to get used to a new site and learn where everything is.’’
Mr Cornelius said mobile phone apps using the previous maps did not work when people tried to use them on Sunday.
Meteorologist Tony Auden said the new map had confused people who previously could assume that black areas meant hail was coming.
Hundreds of readers took to the Courier-Mail website to vent their anger.
One reader slammed the colour coding change as a “diabolical misjudgment” by BOM.
“Leaving people seeing orange on the new map (with no warning about the changes to colour coding) and thinking they were just going to cop heavy rain and wind, only to then get belted with large hail and extreme winds (which should have shown as black as per the old map) is simply unforgivable because it was an entirely unavoidable situation.” they posted.
Another said they hated the new BOM site while railing against the $4.1m in “wasted” taxpayer cash.
“The old BOM (site) was much better,” they said.
“Could pinpoint my suburb between two others. Now it is a maze.”
The BOM spokeswoman said the bureau conducted user research and testing to understand how people used the website and identify improvements.
“We expect satisfaction to increase as customers become accustomed to the new website and discover its benefits,’’ she said.
The new website presented blended images from multiple radars, improving reliability, while the “legacy’’ site did not provide consistent viewing of rainfall intensity.
But users could choose to display radar images using the same measures as the old website if they preferred.
Both the new weather map and the app “smoothed’’ the mm/h rainfall intensity image to eliminate errors.
She said the new website was rolled out gradually on October 22. Forecasts and warnings were not affected during that time and the new site featured more prominent warnings.
The bureau was in close contact with emergency services about the changes.
The influx of insurance claims following Sunday's storm comes ahead of what the ICA says is expected to be a challenging few weeks of severe storm activity along the east coast.Under the “significant event” declaration, the ICA has begun collecting claims data, analysis and reporting processes in consultation with members.
ICA CEO Andrew Hall said while it was too early to determine the complete insurance impact on homes and businesses, claims lodged to date included damage to motor vehicles, food spoilage due to power outages, smashed windows, and fallen trees. He said with more severe storms expected along the east coast over the coming few weeks, it was important for homeowners to be prepared and take steps to protect themselves and their property.
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