Bureau of Meteorology backflips on radar design, caves to community pressure
After the release of a $4.1m website revamp, the Bureau of Meteorology has gone back to an earlier version of its radar mapping under community pressure.
The Bureau of Meteorology has backflipped on controversial changes to its rain radars and weather maps after heated criticism from state and federal governments.
The bureau announced on Friday that “in response to community feedback” it would return to the website’s old rain radar display, just days after its acting chief executive was hauled before federal Environment Minister Murray Watt.
“This brings back a visual style that many customers say they found intuitive and reliable for interpreting weather conditions,” the Bureau said in a statement.
Acting BOM head Peter Stone, who was expected to brief state and territory emergency services ministers by Friday, said more changes to the bureau’s new $4.1m website were “in the pipeline”.
“We’ve listened to your feedback, and have restored the previous radar colour scheme,” he said.
“We will continue to assess options for further updates and improvements at the same time as pushing on with our efforts to help the community become more familiar with the new website.”
The overhaul of its website, which the BOM launched in October, faced widespread backlash from farmers, who labelled it a “full-blown nightmare” placing crops, livestock and even human life at risk.
Senator Watt conceded the new website was failing to meet community expectations, before Mr Stone issued a statement apologising for the “challenges the change has caused”.
“I acknowledge the concerns raised by the community and recognise the significance of the change,” Mr Stone said.
“We didn’t make the change lightly and we appreciate that it will take time for some to adjust.”
Thunderstorms that lashed Queensland just days after the new website was unveiled, only intensified the backlash, with Premier David Crisafulli saying the changes were “not good enough”.
“Queenslanders always show their resilience in these events, but preparation is the key,” he said.
“The changes to the website don’t make sense. The website is flawed.”
While the rain display will return to the default rain reflectivity display (dBZ), users will be able to choose to between the old and new millimetres per hour view.
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