Bureau of Meteorology forces users to accept inaccuracies in app

The Bureau of Meteorology’s app does not allow users to access critical forecasting information without first accepting the weather agency takes no liability for inaccurate predictions.

Flooding in Cairns in December. Picture: Cockatours

The Bureau of Meteorology is ­requiring people to absolve it of legal liability for any loss, damages or costs they incur from forecasts, which it warns carry a “degree of uncertainty”, before granting access to its app.

Users of the BOM app now have to agree to a 699-word “terms and conditions” statement that includes “information at this app … may not be accurate, current or complete”.

The disclaimer also says the “bureau excludes any liability that may arise” from use of the app.

The national forecaster faces mounting criticism amid claims it has been either alarmist or has failed to predict major weather events in recent months.

Some farmers have blamed ­inaccurate predictions of a dry spring and summer this year for sparking a rush among producers to sell their livestock, fearing there would not be enough pasture to feed the animals.

The bureau has also faced stinging attacks from mayors for failing to forecast the extreme rainfall that accompanied Cyclone Jasper, which caused major flooding around Cairns this month, or the wild storms that ripped through southeast Queensland this week.

On Thursday, a BOM spokeswoman would not say when the app began requiring users to agree to the disclaimer before access is granted. Its website has had a disclaimer for more than a decade but visitors are not required to agree to it before gaining access.

“To the maximum extent permitted by law, the bureau excludes any liability that may arise in connection with the BOM Weather app or any information or material presented therein or your access to or use of any of the same,’’ the bureau says in a “terms and conditions” statement that appears when a user attempts to download its app.

“This includes, but is not ­limited to, any loss, damage or cost (howsoever arising) that may be caused by any reliance on any information accessible within or via the app.”

The terms and conditions then state: “By using this app, you acknowledge and agree that: any prediction, forecast, opinion, information, or advice that may be presented in, or accessible via, the app is subject to a degree of uncertainty, whether caused by the natural uncertainty involved in the prediction of future events, a margin of error associated with certain instrumentation, programs or equipment, or some other cause.”

When contacted by The Australian, a BOM spokeswoman said: “We only have operational staff available over the Christmas and new year period and are unable to facilitate this request at this time.” Any inquiries outside forecasting would not be addressed until after January 1.

On Wednesday, Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate criticised the BOM’s “unforgivable” failure to issue timely warnings ahead of the deadly storm that lashed the city on Christmas night.

Mr Tate said he was emailed an updated warning at 9pm that storms would hit the Gold Coast from 8.45pm. “I’m looking at the sky and we’ve already copped it,” he said.

Douglas Shire mayor Michael Kerr blasted the bureau for failing to predict the severity of the rain in the wake of Jasper in the week before Christmas. “If this is so record-breaking, how did no one know this was going to happen … we need to have forecasts closer to what is going on,” he said.

Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said on Thursday he had full confidence in the bureau.

“I think that they do the best they can to give as accurate information to the community and decision-makers like us about weather conditions,” he said. “Meteorology is not a perfect science. Sometimes you do deal with weather systems that cannot be predicted and I think the one that we saw here the other day was like that, as it was in far north Queensland … very unpredictable systems that with the best will in the world, it’s sometimes not possible to provide ultra-precise information.”