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MetService - Annual Report 2011 - Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit

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Chairman’s & CEO’s report<br />

Year in review<br />

Radar roll-out improves weather picture<br />

In 2007, <strong>MetService</strong> began a $12 million<br />

radar network expansion programme, for<br />

nine weather radars around New Zealand.<br />

This comprehensive network will give us<br />

excellent coverage of the country and<br />

surrounding marine areas, as our long<br />

coastline and mountainous terrain pose<br />

major challenges for weather observation.<br />

The programme is on schedule; with the<br />

commissioning of the first weather radar<br />

on Mahia Peninsula, Hawke’s Bay last<br />

year, and the recent completion of the<br />

Bay of Plenty radar near Rotorua, built on<br />

a 12 metre high tower and enclosed in a<br />

fibreglass dome.<br />

Steady progress is being made on the<br />

Hokitika radar for a November <strong>2011</strong><br />

go-live date. This radar will detect and<br />

monitor rain out to 300km from the site,<br />

greatly improving our ‘weather picture’<br />

over the whole West Coast region and<br />

out over the Tasman Sea.<br />

Work has also begun on the fourth new<br />

radar, to be located in Northland.<br />

Road weather network completed<br />

In the last three years, <strong>MetService</strong><br />

has worked in close collaboration with<br />

the NZTA to commission a total of<br />

42 road weather stations throughout<br />

New Zealand – the subject of our feature<br />

case study on page 6.<br />

Notably, during this past year <strong>MetService</strong><br />

built and installed 22 of these Automatic<br />

Weather Stations (AWS) across a broad<br />

area of the South Island, many during the<br />

harsh winter months. The roll-out was<br />

achieved on time and within budget.<br />

Severe weather forecasting<br />

The year brought more than its share of<br />

severe weather events, during which the<br />

forecast room team were invaluable.<br />

Some of the most memorable of these<br />

events were:<br />

• A week-long cold southwesterly in<br />

mid-September 2010 that brought<br />

widespread gales, rain and snow, with<br />

heavy snow leading to the collapse of<br />

the roof at Stadium Southland.<br />

• Heavy rain on the east coast of the<br />

North Island in October 2010, with<br />

rainfall in some parts of Gisborne<br />

similar to that during the infamous<br />

Cyclone Bola.<br />

• The largest number of severe weather<br />

warnings of any January since records<br />

began, including two tropical systems<br />

which caused major flooding in the<br />

upper North Island.<br />

• An Easter storm in which parts of<br />

Hawke’s Bay received rainfall of<br />

historic proportions, with some stations<br />

recording well over 500mm in three<br />

days. At the storm’s peak, rainfall was<br />

so high that even forecasters and local<br />

council hydrologists initially didn’t<br />

believe the reports!<br />

89%<br />

Waiouru<br />

Probability of Detection<br />

(POD) of severe gales, 17%<br />

False Alarm Ratio (FAR)<br />

82%<br />

Probability of Detection<br />

(POD) of heavy snow, 10%<br />

False Alarm Ratio (FAR)<br />

South Automatic Weather Station<br />

on the Desert Road<br />

14 Meteorological Service of New Zealand Ltd <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2011</strong>

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