Issued by MetService at 4pm 28-Nov-2006
Metservice Goes Farming
The new rural weather web pages on the free MetService.com web site are now providing the weather information that
farmers have asked for.
"Farmers' livelihood depends on the weather," said MetService Weather Ambassador Bob McDavitt. "At this year's National
Fieldays we gathered ideas from farmers about what weather information they wanted from the Internet and we have now put
these together in our rural weather section."
"Farming is all about turning rain into dollars, and so it isn't surprising that rain information is what the farmers
wanted first. Our rain section provides a national view on rainfall for the past week, the past day, a radar loop for
the past six hours, and a computer model giving expected rain for the next three days."
Farmers want quick access to weather information that will help their decision-making. "The first page in our rural
weather section indicates any weather warnings and provides a place where anyone can click on their location to get
access to a regional forecast covering the next ten days."
"The winning formula for weather forecasting is to get the best ideas and then to twist these with your own local
knowledge. MetService isn't in a position to provide localised forecasts for every farm in the country, but many farmers
know how their place varies from a spot down the road. On our 23 regional pages we offer 40 spots with a full
hour-by-hour weather-graph covering temperature and rainfall, along with major wind changes. These graphs give today's
observations and a forecast going out until the day after tomorrow."
MetService rural weather includes free access to their seasonal forecast which gives an overview of likely weather
patterns for the next two months. MetService is also making local weather forecasts for 45 locations available via text
messaging so that farmers can get a weather update via cell phone when out and about on the farm.
ENDS