Picton is Just a Step Away From Getting Its Own Weather Station
Picton is a step away from getting its own weather station, subject only to confirmation that a television channel would
include the town on its weather maps.
The Picton and Marlborough Sounds Tourism Group brought the proposal to Council earlier this year, seeking funding
through the 2017-18 Annual Plan. It was suggested the weather station could feed Picton data to the Met Service for its
national weather forecasting services to help ‘put Picton on the map’ as well as provide rainfall figures to Council’s
hydrology monitoring programme.
Council yesterday agreed to install and maintain the weather station if the Tourism Group can negotiate arrangements
with a national broadcaster to use the data.
Council’s environmental science and monitoring group has identified a suitable site for a weather station at the
southern stopbank of Waitohi Domain close to Dublin Street. It would measure rainfall, wind speed and direction, air
temperature, humidity and barometric pressure using equipment which complies with the National Environmental Monitoring
Standards.
The estimated cost of installing the weather station is $25,000 with an operating budget of up to $5,500 a year,
depending on whether other funding sources can be found.
ENDS.