MetService - Annual Report 2011 - Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit

Chairman’s & CEO’s report
Year in review
Radar roll-out improves weather picture
In 2007, MetService began a $12 million
radar network expansion programme, for
nine weather radars around New Zealand.
This comprehensive network will give us
excellent coverage of the country and
surrounding marine areas, as our long
coastline and mountainous terrain pose
major challenges for weather observation.
The programme is on schedule; with the
commissioning of the first weather radar
on Mahia Peninsula, Hawke’s Bay last
year, and the recent completion of the
Bay of Plenty radar near Rotorua, built on
a 12 metre high tower and enclosed in a
fibreglass dome.
Steady progress is being made on the
Hokitika radar for a November 2011
go-live date. This radar will detect and
monitor rain out to 300km from the site,
greatly improving our ‘weather picture’
over the whole West Coast region and
out over the Tasman Sea.
Work has also begun on the fourth new
radar, to be located in Northland.
Road weather network completed
In the last three years, MetService
has worked in close collaboration with
the NZTA to commission a total of
42 road weather stations throughout
New Zealand – the subject of our feature
case study on page 6.
Notably, during this past year MetService
built and installed 22 of these Automatic
Weather Stations (AWS) across a broad
area of the South Island, many during the
harsh winter months. The roll-out was
achieved on time and within budget.
Severe weather forecasting
The year brought more than its share of
severe weather events, during which the
forecast room team were invaluable.
Some of the most memorable of these
events were:
• A week-long cold southwesterly in
mid-September 2010 that brought
widespread gales, rain and snow, with
heavy snow leading to the collapse of
the roof at Stadium Southland.
• Heavy rain on the east coast of the
North Island in October 2010, with
rainfall in some parts of Gisborne
similar to that during the infamous
Cyclone Bola.
• The largest number of severe weather
warnings of any January since records
began, including two tropical systems
which caused major flooding in the
upper North Island.
• An Easter storm in which parts of
Hawke’s Bay received rainfall of
historic proportions, with some stations
recording well over 500mm in three
days. At the storm’s peak, rainfall was
so high that even forecasters and local
council hydrologists initially didn’t
believe the reports!
89%
Waiouru
Probability of Detection
(POD) of severe gales, 17%
False Alarm Ratio (FAR)
82%
Probability of Detection
(POD) of heavy snow, 10%
False Alarm Ratio (FAR)
South Automatic Weather Station
on the Desert Road
14 Meteorological Service of New Zealand Ltd Annual Report 2011