By Jo Nova
Everyone’s new favourite Bureau of Meteorology page is the old one (reg.bom.gov.au)
UPDATE: People don’t seem to realize this is the golden link (above) to the old BoM site. You can remake your bookmarks. Eg: The Old Rain Radars.
UPDATE #2: Good news! The BoM has decided to keep the old radar style, but allow people to choose the mm/h newer style if they want. Sounds like a choice!
Despite 4 million dollars and 18 months of beta testing the new BoM website was met with anger and dismay and accusations that they put lives at risk by rolling out big unnecessary changes just before the storm season begins in the north.
The new design radiates smug condescension. They are the experts and you are the kindy kids. The headers are done in 100 point font, with acres of screen-space used to convey almost nothing at all, apart from the temperature of the capital city near you. The BoM, apparently, thought this is what Australians wanted — “the temperature now”. Except that most people with a computer or a phone can see the temperature in the task bar or home screen. If only someone had told them “there’s an App for that” they could have saved the money.
Across the top of the home page is a giant message for four-year-old taxpayers — “Discover Your Weather”. The BoM are the authority and you, a crusty old farmer/brickie/businessman, have never known weather before.
This headline is designed to remind you of how stupid you are
It “feels like” Dick and Dora would like to teach you about clouds today.
If it grates on you, there’s a reason.
The feedback has been so bad even the federal Labor government is demanding answers.
But really, it’s your fault and you need to adjust faster:
The BoM’s top man acknowledged ‘some’ people (i.e. the stupid ones) will take time to adjust. In other words, they are sorry, not sorry.
The BoM’s CEO, Dr Peter Stone, said he recognised the unpopularity of the changes.
“We didn’t make the change lightly and we appreciate that it will take time for some to adjust. I sincerely apologise for the challenges the change has caused,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Because they live off constant taxpayer funding, the BoM don’t realize out in the real world, the hours Australians spend learning how to use a new website costs real money. All the knowledge millions of Australians had of how to find meteorological-data has been tossed to the wind. The BoM just drained 10 million hours of productivity from the country.
One of reasons for the change is that the “upgrade was overdue”:
“The old website served us really well, but it had been well over a decade since there has been any upgrades to it,” he said.
So? It’s as if a ten year old site simply had to change because there was grant money to spend and no one had spent it yet, right? The old public service axiom.
Compare the new site to the old. In the same space on the home page, the old site has a satellite map, temperatures, wind direction, wind speed, max and min temperatures, and rainfall in mm. There are one click links to warnings, forecasts and observations. That’s about 50 times as much information.
Many people are especially unhappy about the rain radars
Some people in Queensland were up in arms when storms hit a few days after the new site opened, and the rain radar appeared to be underestimating the intensity of the rain. Below is the old and new versions of the same rain patterns at the same time around Brisbane last night just for comparison.
The designers have added a white halo around the town names to improve readability on a busy background, but it makes the town names stand out which obscures the rain. Kinda defeats the point…
Old Radar page and the New radar BOM. The two scales are not exactly the same (they don’t have the same menu options).
The new site works a bit better zoomed in.
Up closer, Brisbane to Caloundra 2:20am
The two color scales appear to be the same in the key (below). But the colors are applied in different conditions. According to Steve Turton, the old radar site uses radar reflectivity units (dbz) while the new one uses a rainfall rate in millimeters (mm/h). Rainfall that appeared black in the old scale was only red in the new scale. Hence people got a nasty surprise because they underestimated how heavy it was.
Steve Turton also says the Doppler wind function is gone:
Farmers and fishers have been frustrated by the disappearance of the Doppler wind function. On the old site, this function was a vital way to track the intensity of winds associated with supercell storms, cold fronts and tropical cyclones.
In hilly regions such as the area between Cooktown and Townsville, local weather radars are essential as a way to give residents and farmers a better way to see rainfall. But in the new update, some areas appear to have been completely wiped from the radar view. Places such as Cape Tribulation – one of the wettest locations in Australia – can no longer access this crucial information.
Around Broome last night the oncoming rain looked remarkably different in the two radar displays. The vast rain dropping north of Bidyadanga almost disappears (as does Broome itself, in the new radar, oops).
Broome rain radar — old and new
Let the BoM (and your MP) know what you think. The BoM wants your feedback they say:
Customers and the community can continue to provide feedback via:
•On-page: Customers can submit anonymous feedback using the feedback pop-up window or the ‘Was this page useful’ button at the bottom of every page.
•Contact form: Customers can submit feedback and enquiries on the new website’s contact form.
•Phone line: Customers can call 1300 754 389 for website help (operating hours 8am-6pm AEDT weekdays).
The BoM are too detached from real Australians:
The real problem seems to be that the BoM is a long way from any accountability or competition in anything it does. They got away with hiding their methods, making huge adjustments to data, throwing away data, not being honest about the uncertainties they are dealing with, and using electronic equipment that records “one second records”. At times they have made flagrantly bizarre and radical changes to our historic data, or homogenized data from 1,500 kilometers away. Sometimes, they pretend the 1800s didn’t happen (don’t mention the Federation Drought or all the times it was 50 degrees Celsius in Australia).
It appears they think taxpayers are simpletons. (Perhaps because 69% of them don’t believe in the BoM’s favourite climate religion?) Wrapped up in their inner city enclaves, many BoM staff may have never met a real farmer. Yet farmers are businessmen who make a living out of placing bets of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the weather every year. And fishermen and firemen sometimes risk their lives.
Who were testing the beta site for 18 months — not farmers, firefighters and fishermen?
h/t Geoff D, J.J. Peter C, Vicki, David Maddison, Old Ozzie, Yarpos, Ronin, OzFred
THE BOM LIST grows — Scandal after scandal
- BOM Scandal: One second records in Australia — how “noise” creates history and a warming trend
- Another BOM scandal: Australian climate data is being destroyed as routine practice
- Australian Bureau of Meteorology caught erasing cold temperatures
- Two-thirds of Australias warming due to “adjustments” — according to 84 historic stations
- The mysterious BOM disinterest in hot historic Australian Stevenson screen temperatures
- The lost climate knowledge of Deacon 1952: hot dry summers from 1880-1910
- 1953 Headline: Melbourne’s weather is changing! Summers getting colder and wetter
- The mysterious lost record hot Sunday in Bourke, did it really happen?
- Wow, look at those BOM adjustments – trends up by two degrees C!
- Australian BOM “neutral” adjustments increase minima trends up 50%
- Was the Hottest Day Ever in Australia not in a desert, but in far south Albany?!
- Hottest summer record in Australia? Not so, says UAH satellite data
- Mystery black-box method used to make *all new* Australian “hottest” ever records
- Threat of ANAO Audit means Australia’s BOM throws out temperature set, starts again, gets same results
- Australian Temperatures in cities adjusted up by 70%!?
- Magically correcting Australia’s thermometers from 1,500 kilometers away
Fully agree. I complained immediately. Weather is not entertainment. My phone was set to open where I needed radar in a compact clear way. Rain, wind, temperature, readings.
Now it is a game with the prize being finding what you need. Every single time. You could not operate anything with a dashboard like this! Useless new system. Monty Pythonesque..what is your favourite colour?
560
Did any one ask the long suffering Taxpayers for feedback? NO they farking well never fought’ of that.
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BoM? Bags of Misinformation???
60
A most frustrating, user unfriendly site. I gave up after 2 goes and stick to the old site- like everyone else I know.
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They made the site for themselves.
Got it.
Like another site that I used to frequent.
Absolutely useless.
They DO NOT want you to be able to get quick, useful information.
ALL the “information” has to come from them.
Remember, they’re the “experts”.
What the hell would you know, eh?
380
We were appalled and outraged when we first saw it and tried to navigate it. Couldn’t believe what BOM has done. Although longer term forecasts are important, we really need to consult the radar to anticipate rain and storms. On the old site this could be done immediately. On the day we first noted the new site we struggled to find the immediate information we needed. We were outraged. We now have bookmarked the old site and use it. But that is not the point. These bureaucratic ratbags , who don’t comprehend the needs of those they serve, must be held accountable. Judging by the response of the head of BOM , they refuse to acknowledge the anger and objections of those who depend on their service.
460
I’m not happy at all and I’ve told them so a number of times, but I’m sure their Labor, Greens mates will not be too severe on them. We know they’ll rely on them to use the usual BS and tricks to help them out when they again call to cover their backsides.
240
If their climate forecasting & modelling is an inexcusable, unbelievable hodgepodge of lies, obfuscation & deceit what can you expect.
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FWIW
“Peter Allen – Everything Old Is New Again”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9FfI4-oRDo
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About the only bit you could rely on in the BOM site was the radar, now it’s been nobbled, nackered, neutered, it’s just a pale shadow of its former self.
350
The BOM’s gone New Coke. All that remains is to guess when they will revert back to the old site.
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The UK Met Office has just updated their site too. Weird coincidence. I prefer the old, just seemed to work and present the detail Concisely.
A lot of unhappy bunnies commenting on the changes. E.g.
https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/1ofmih2/the_new_design_of_the_met_office_website_looks/
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Interesting.
When these things happen in lockstep around the planet, you definitely go “Hmmmm”.
The ratbags driving this show really seem to think we don’t notice, and/or will not have the nouse or guts to tell them “NO”!
They’re wrong.
130
Information is important, so should not be released to those paying for it. Information must be gathered by the priest class, digested, reshaped and delivered back as an actionable ideology that benefits the ruling few.
270
Doppler wind was a great way of determining when a cold front would strike your home. It gave meaningful data about the timing and the windspeed. Whilst you couldn’t do much about the intensity of the change and how it affected your assets, you could at least see if you needed to take cover and importantly, what to expect after it had passed.
What was the reason for deleting this function? Surely more data is better than less.
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I would like to know if ANY REAL PEOPLE, were actually involved in any usability testing.
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Maybe the new site was tested on a couple of DEI hires and budding artistes. I don’t think it was tested on anybody who actually wants/needs weather information quickly.
The new BOM could use the following on their website…
Disclaimer: No real people were used to test the suitability of BOM. We always provide transparency of all our data gathering methods. The strictest protocols are used in all our data manipulation methods and are strictly patented and copyrighted.
Our PR team will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
To contact us you will need to provide digital ID.
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So now to contact a government department you need a digital ID even though they told us it’s not compulsory.
A bit like “non-compulsory” covid “vaccines”.
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Sorry if I misled you David. The BOM doesn’t require digital ID.
The disclaimer was my attempt at a bit of satire.
Not anywhere near the standard of Babylon Bee unfortunately.
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Thanks Wal. The problem is that the Left and their bureaucracy have become so insane, and self-parodying, that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish parody from reality.
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So true.
I’m almost at the stage where they might try to tell us that the black text on a written page is actually white!…and that it’s waaacist!
It would be funny if it wasn’t so ludicrous.
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To contact us you will need to provide digital ID.
As mentioned that is not true.
However I would guess that their accepted testers only ever accessed the beta site via their mobile phones. And outside of testing, the testers would have had no interest when the next rain storm would drop precipitation on the roof of their air conditioned office.
Side issue: Did they ever discover that their desktop connection (wireless no less) may think they are several hundreds of kilometers from where they are actually sitting?
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Real people with functioning brains that is.
A certain tv station starts the nightly news with the statement “your nightly news begins now”, as though viewers are to stupid to know that.
Everything is being dumbed down for the short attention span, brain-fogged-from-the- vaxx population.
You don’t need detailed information, it’s one of the hottest days ever. That’s all you need.
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If they were they were probably ignored.
I was an alpha tester on MyGov back in the day and made quite a number of recommendations to make it user friendly, based on experience on working with computerized systems going back to the 1970s, both mainframe, LAN, and WAN.
So did the other testers, and all of us were experienced in using government systems.
Not only were all those recommendations ignored, the system was made worse.
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When and if they fix the site, they can revise both their short range (weather) and long range (climate) prediction models, both of which are useless.
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I was commenting only yesterday about Alf Gard (a name from the distant past with the ABC).
He was stuck in a commentators by (at the races) with heavy rain falling and the jockey wanting to strike.
The ABC Home voice announced he would switch to Al (while he went off to the canteen).
Alf got stuck into the BOM and suggested that their forecast of clear skies was slightly off.
This created a bit of furore about the standard of the BOM forecasts, which they replied that
Forecasting was difficult
That recent forecasts had been 30% accurate. (this in the 1970’s)
And that Alf’s predictions of likely winning racehorses had only been 10% accurate for that time.
Since then I think (my opinion and quite a lots of locals) is that the BOM hasn’t maintained their record.
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The new site of the radar information was clearly designed by idiots under the direction of idiots to cater for idiots. When I saw it and tried to use it, I couldn’t believe that the site had not been hacked and wrecked by evil forces. I sent messages of complaint that day. I use the site to anticipate rain, hail, storms and the like. On the old site, this was easy. I now seek out the old site and information, as the new one is useless. The BOM needs to be held accountable for its mess. The head of the BOM thinks the new site is great. He needs to find another job.
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Funny, I thought it was me, I thought I’m going to have spend a bit of time to learn it, but it turns out everybody says the same thing, it’s carp.
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I was lucky. Just hours before the storm it Brisbane I’d read a post from a stranger that provided a link to the old site (hidden on the new site). I saw how bad it was and was able to tie down equipment and get cars undercover.
Here’s the link to the old site:
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128 km Brisbane (Mt Stapylton) Radar Loop
https://reg.bom.gov.au/products/IDR663.loop.shtml#skip
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Great work!
I used your link and moved the focus to Melbourne and recovered my very useful radar/rain/wind/cloud cover information on a single screen.
for Melbourne
https://reg.bom.gov.au/products/IDR023.loop.shtml#skip
This is a wonderful single screen instant summary I need for many reasons. Not some sort of Super Mario game.
90
And added it to my phone so I can see approaching rain with a click. Essential for my bike riding group. Unless you want to be swiping menus, clicking and answering survey questions while on a bicycle.
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Just use the reg.bom.gov.au link I provided in the first line, and from there navigate to all the things you need to rebookmark. ie, national radars: https://reg.bom.gov.au/australia/radar/
The most important question is how long are they planning to keep reg.bom running? Imagine the outcry if that was not available at all?
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Thanks. Like most of life, obvious in hindsight. I have 20/20 hindsight.
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As an Australia overall radar yes that is correct. So far I have not found a link to an individual radar zone that the previous site had.
eg: for the Canberra radar was – http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR403.loop.shtml#skip
This only takes you to the Oz-wide radar ie features have been diminished.
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UPDATE – after a bit more research on the new website I found you can make your location a ‘favourite’ under the star icon on the top masthead.
This does give you all data for your location but doesn’t take you directly the radar but rather the forecast for the rest of the day and tomorrow.
Once you scroll past this you get to the radar (for what it is).
10
Just use Jo’s link above and then on the main map click on the black diamond or red triangle for your location, and wallah you are then at the old local radar page, just as before.
Once you are on any page on the old (legacy) site it seems that all links there resolve to the appropriate legacy pages.
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The BOM app has a great radar map. One click.
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Not to worry you can go to the BOM Indigenous site.
Of course hundreds of different languages but alas NO written languages, but who cares when you can just make it up.
https://www.bom.gov.au/resources/indigenous-weather-knowledge
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Speaking of making it up, this recent job listing for a media officer at the Bureau of Manure gives an insight into the mentality of the organisation. The role emphasises storytelling as opposed to presenting clear, easily accessible real-world content.
https://www.glassdoor.com.au/job-listing/media-officer-australian-bureau-of-meteorology-JV_KO0,13_KE14,46.htm?jl=1009923167348
I guess if you claim climate change is anthropogenic, it’s not such a great leap to share the “human story” behind the weather. If you order a blender from Amazon, you do not need the story of the people who picked and packed it- you just want what you payed for.
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Good grief!
That’s plain nuts.
You don’t want a “story” about anything when you’re checking the weather and basing your day, week activities on the information.
I want even less to know about the “stories” of the employees, their communities or BOM’s other customers (except to know how accurate they find the information about the actual weather).
Just do the job yo’ve been paid for, Mr. BOM Head whatever, and quit the condescending nonsense.
Scrap this new thing altogether and get back to honest, accurate reporting of weather and forecasts.
Maybe if the BOM Head honcho thinks it so great, he can pay the $4,000,000 out of his own pocket.
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Bring back the weather rock!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Weather_Stone_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1763606.jpg/960px-Weather_Stone_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1763606.jpg
No tech or website needed, just the traditional ways.
What? No rainbow serpent in the sky warnings?
Bit of an oversight.
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This also works:
“new england weather stick” – – Search on images.
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You can’t argue with the Weather Stone.
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How does one spend $4,000,000 on a website? Tell this isn’t a government operation without telling me…
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Thats easy, the real question is how you do that and go backwards in functionality and ease of use.
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100%, and that is the most galling part of it.
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Has anyone tried out the BOM Indigenous weather knowledge site yet?
Scores of languages but zero written languages, so how does that work?
https://www.bom.gov.au/resources/indigenous-weather-knowledge
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No, I thought they were trolling me
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Why would anyone bother. More politically correct rubbish.
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I had a brief look. The fundamental error is that it is skimpy climatological “information” and no WEATHER knowledge at all. Who would ever have guessed that it gets hot and rainy in the northern summer?
By publishing this as “weather information” the BOM appears to reveal that it does not understand the difference between CLIMATE and WEATHER.
The next biggest error is that apparently those who lived away from the coast lacked any knowledge at all. It is stunningly tokenistic.
The final error I noticed is the promotion of the idea of the noble savage. Apparently they knew everything they needed to know before their utopia was interrupted by those with systems of writing. And then there is the use of anglicized tribal language with NO TRANSLATION. It could be saying anything!
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As a follow up I did a google translate on the words “Thainburra una burranyen ngaia nyam ngenda dunga nguralami” which appear under the heading of welcome on one of the pages.
Google identifies the language as Swahili and translates the words to “Thainburra is a young girl who likes to play in the fields”.
The always entertaining reverse translation from English to Swahili results in “Thainburra ni msichana mdogo ambaye anapenda kucheza katika mashamba”.
Yes, I know. Play stupid games and win stupid prizes (or government grants).
120
Over the last few years instead of using Melbourne as the name for the city, it has been interchanged for the word “Naarm”. The AFL (Australian Football League) and airlines notable for being some of the first to use that name and others. When you look up the meaning for “Naarm”, it just means “place” in aboriginal Woiwurrung language. So basically everywhere could be called “Naarm”. You could even rename Pittsburg, Pennsylvania as “Naarm”. Silly stuff.
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I think it is a recent invention like Uluru for Ayers Rock and K’Gari for Fraser Island.
As I recall John Batman signed a treaty with one or more of the local tribes when he founded Melbourne. If there really was a native name for the area it would be reasonable to expect it to be in that document. Images of that document exist. Yan Yan (Yan Yean) is in the document. Naarm is not.
And despite the modern standard that anything stated repeatedly must be true almost all aboriginal history is fiction.
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Like a lot of modern software, the designers seem to have no concept of how people use it, what they want and ease-of-use. They seem to design it to impress other IT people; the actual users’ wants come a very distant second.
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Where are direct links where you can make short cuts to radar locations?
People want precise (if it ever was) and direct information and not have to continually search / expand / move focus to find desired info.
What a disappointment although not surprised by our wasted tax dollars by the BOM.
What else have they done while distracting us by the front end?
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Once you have found the page you want it is within your own power to create a direct link to it, but yeah it feels clumsy to navigate.
I’m still using the old site. I wonder how long they will leave it up?
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Previous individual radar links no longer exist – see my response to Jo above https://joannenova.com.au/2025/10/bring-the-old-site-back-the-new-4m-bom-website-treats-us-like-kindy-kids/#comment-2877720
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See my reply to your previous linked comment.
It appears that all the old pages that we are familiar with are still available and working but they have made a small change to the web address for each of them. This means that all your old bookmarks will just redirect to the new site unless you edit them or recreate them with the new page address as per the following.
All the legacy page addresses now start with.
“https://reg.bom.gov.au/”
replacing the “http://www.bom.gov.au/” part.
The rest of the page address should still be the same.
10
The main complaint I noted on X was the changed shading of the rain radar ( intensity). In the old , black rain was bad!!! It also indicated possible hail. With the recent Qld storms, people were most surprised it was hailing when the new radar only indicated medium / heavy rain..
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Takes me five clicks to get to where I always wanted to go. And none of those steps are altogether logical. Came down to trial and error. I’ve had to get it down pat. I wasn’t navigating I was lucky dipping.
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Spot on Jo . I was dismayed when confronted with the new ” radar ” ( which it isn’t !!!!!!! ) . The data from many radars is merged , blurred and vagued out . Useless .
I lodged complaints straight away !
As you say : put together for kiddies by kiddies . Perhaps that is ” projection ” , something the hard left has a habit of .
I was in the habit of looking at a few different radars and had got to know which areas each radar covered most accurately . I knew there were some errors and could factor those in to get a reasonable idea of what was happening . The new site takes all of that away . Useless !
Out of frustration I had a look at what was available to set up a personal rain radar ( on top of the hill on our farm ) but this is not like a home weather station the cost would be beyond the capacity of all but a large town or reasonable sized corporation .
I was delighted to see a link to the old site above , already bookmarked it ! Hopefully the cretins don’t delete that out of malice just to force us back onto the new simpleton’s site !
If they do then the coalition need to promise mass sackings when they get back into power ( if they would just stop self destruction ) .
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Maybe they are following the UK Met Office home page.
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That’s very handy!
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Wow, that is really bad. The new home page almost looks like a ‘site not found’ window. Zero information and that horrible, condescending stupidity. Down the bottom (if you even think to scroll down, and why would you?), there is a special link to ‘indigenous weather knowledge’. Everything you need to know about what’s happened is right there.
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I think the place names are harder to read with the white outline.
I know Jo said otherwise but it doesn’t help me in any way.
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A technicality I know, but I said they did it to improve readability, not that it was more readable. I find it bad too.
But I can imagine the graphic designer saying “this is what we need”.
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Thanks Jo.
I was putting it down to my age.
It’s amazing what I have trouble reading nowadays.
Slightly O/T
I have often wondered why some product manufacturers insist on using coloured text on a coloured background. This is especially bad when the text is regarding warnings and uses and is very small.
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It’s normally acknowledged that dark print on a light background is more readable than light print on a dark background.
40
The last Apple OS software update for iPhones and iPads introduced a feature called Liquid Glass. It gave icons and apps opacity so you can see what’s behind them. It just made everything harder to read, like with the BOM website there seemed to be a consensus amongst users that it was a step backwards. You can adjust settings to make things more legible but it still looks worse than the previous OS set up. And the kicker is the battery on your device now drains quicker.
As with a lot of things these days, an update doesn’t mean you necessarily going to get an upgrade.
20
Agreed. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
10
I use Windy.com
It’s a more compelling and interesting site.
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The animated winds on the opening page at windy.com would show the formation of cyclones and wind gradients. Very good.
The BOM equivalent is a page of apparently equally spaced arrows which provide very limited information indeed.
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Josh from CyclonesOZ bases his (at least) twice daily reports on Windy.com.
He seems like an old-fashioned young fella of excellent seriousness and when there are bitey storms about he gives blow by blow info. Should be interesting tomorrow.
This is his youtube link https://www.youtube.com/@cyclonesoz
00
Ive see that arrogant sort of response many times before. Oh they just need to get used to it, or they just need to be educated. Usually by some pompous git who thinks his customers are peasants. It’s their kneejerk response when they have obviously failed and need to deflect.
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I would have thought that it would have been worth the BOM* having a bit of a squiz at the many alternative web sites which provide meteorological information on a commercial basis. Most of the alternatives are good and getting better. The alternatives either provide a useful service or they suffer the commercial consequences.
And I would have thought that the BOM* might have engaged somebody with some basic understanding of why screen real estate is a precious commodity not to be wasted.
And the new rain radar design seems to be designed to hide information. What for example has become of the Great Diving Range? And what are the large fuzzy white areas on the images surrounding rainy areas?
But I must say that the “use my location” button helps considerably. In my case the geolocator correctly guessed my town (although geolocators often don’t even come close). I was impressed to see forecast temperatures. I was more than a little surprised that the current temperature was blank.
BOM* meaning anybody who was involved at any level with this effort.
60
How about a tender for private companies to run the data collection network and they can do their own forecast/data websites? May the best win. The entire BoM staff can be fired as it is closed down. The frontline folks can get jobs with the private companies, the middle and upper level drones and parasites can simply go away.
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Like I said the other day ( why don’t people listen…), just use a phone app like Weatherzone+
Local data: Warnings, local radar, 28 day rainfall, observational history, marine/tides/moon
National data: National radar & satellite, synoptic, Ski/snow/cams, video update, news
Local: sunrise, sunset, pollen, UV alert, wind, fire risk.
Why bother with “Wendy house” weather from the BOM wallies?
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Can folks recommend an iPhone replacement? Perhaps WillyWeather or Weatherzone plus? Was caught out recently when out walking, then the BOM radar failed to show rain coming, despite being able to see it. The BOM rain display used to be very reliable.
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“Rain parrot” is not bad. Depending on what you call “rain” ( number of mm) it will warn you, wherever you are, of impending precipitation. But the native weather app on iPhone is also bloody good, depending on its settings. I use Windy, WindAlert, Rain parrot and the iPhone weather app. Plus still Elders Weather a little That’s all I need. There’s only so many hours in the day.
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Ok thanks Ross. Will try some of those.
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So far, the Apple weather map’s rainfall map is just a blur, with edges not clearly defined. Weatherzone Plus doesn’t seem to have any rainfall map.
Will try the others this afternoon, as Perth is forecast to be hit with a lot of rain, but nothing showing yet.
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The elders weather page is better….
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Recent comments in The Australian are saying that Eldersweather is a good option.
10
It’s a balls up!
I used to be able to get my local radar image with temp, wind speed & direction and rain rates all on one image. Now it’s all five clicks away and a crap colour scheme.
The pinch system for radar is useless if you’re in the paddock or on the fire ground with dirty fingers. You can wipe the tip of a finger for a tap but the pinch is widely disliked.
Farmers hate the new site with a passion and it’s dangerous because of its lack of functionality for emergency service. I’ve been in the CFA for 40 years and I can tell you that weather info is life saving. Wind speeds and changes in direction are vital for safety.
The arrogant justifications from BoM staff is doing their image untold damage to their reputation that is already in tatters over seasonal outlooks.
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Ain’t no such thing as a seasonal outlook that isn’t like reading tea leaves.
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Spot on, Gez. I cant imagine why the RFS is not up in arms about the debacle. Probably are – but havnt heard.
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That’s what I used to use a lot on the radar maps, weather observations, just a tick of the box and you could see the surrounding towns temperature, wind and rain information, just one click.
Now you have to click on the wind tab, or the temperature tab to get either and then you get some useless colour gradients that you then have to reference to the colour scale to work out, just what the temp is, or the wind speed and how much rains fallen. So it’s pale yellow, the temperature could be somewhere between 20 and 25. The winds purple – what shade exactly, that’s 20-30 kph, what about the gusts? The rain tab just shows the radar and the intensity of the rain, no actual rainfall data that I could find.
How does this work for those who suffer colour blindness?
Whats wrong with putting the actual station data on the maps, or giving us the option to show the station data like they used to on the old web site? I don’t have an issue with change, but there has to be an improvement and not a retrograde one.
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Wind speeds and changes in direction are vital for safety.
And add the local temperature?
The little circle is centered on traffic intersection in Mt Barker, WA with the map covering most of SW WA. Normally the values correlate well with what I find sticking my head out the door.
Presentation is “re-sizable”
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=-242.93,-33.67,10020/loc=117.390,-34.380
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$4.1 million and the new bom site is orders of magnitude worse than the one it purported to replace, is this just a microcosm of modern govt embuggerance.
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I like the BOM as it stands for Bunch Of Muppets.
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The Australian Comment Moderators still not allowing mention of the Old BOM site in comments, yet The Sydney Moaning Herald had an Editorial with Old BOM Site Linked
Go Figure?
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Do the Mods there allow many other links to go through?
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Usually no links. They have effectively banned links to references and other sites.
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Agreed. Even quite innocent mentions of other sites usually means comment is never shown.
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Somebody has finally been able to post a link to the old BOM site in The Australian comments.
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Weather Watch is way better than the Bunch of Muppets (BOM). LOL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sA2QtLd32A
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Wow…my eternal gratitude to you, I thought the previous site was gone.
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I went to the page of “Rain radar and weather maps” and, at first, I thought of the Windows’ blue screen of death. Hit the + button and names appear. Not much is happening during the 40 minute loop. Perhaps a tropical storm would make for a more interesting screen. Ventusky is more interesting and useful. Lightning strikes have been shown since Aug ’24.
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The question we’re all asking is why ???. The old BOM was good, even if the long range forecasts of hot, dry or both were always wrong and obviously based on CC zealotry. Is this part of the great dumbing down of society, where the real science is hidden behind a veneer of progressive virtue signalling and CC conforming propaganda ?. It’s hard not to notice the pale blue screen of nothing with the acknowledgement to country at the bottom when you first click on the new link.
One small point Jo – the radar image of Broom might not be the best to use for the old-new comparison because those coastal tropical sites are notorious for ‘temperature inversion’ related reflections, which look like a storm but have a tell-tale signal as they correlate with the distance circles. That image is a perfect example of the effect, which is most prevalent in the dry season. In this one instance, the rain rate model does a better job because it is trained to recognise those reflections and remove them. It also gets rid of the ever growing wind farm spots which look small like dotted clouds that blink on and off when you run in loop mode. You can best see these around Yass in NSW on the old radar.
IMO – The BOM should have kept all of the old pages and simply added new ones as alternate views (that never get viewed). Whoever was responsible for this disaster should be sacked, along with the minister in charge.
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Serge that’s an interesting point about Broome, and the radar, but with such big changes in the radar, did the BOM explain anywhere near the images why they would look so different and what situations this would help (or not help) in? If they had explained some problem with the old radar, people would be much more understanding about a switch to a different kind of radar.
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I can’t see any explanations noted anywhere on the site, other than noting they have moved from showing the reflectivity from the actual radar signal to a method based on a model that shows (predicted) rain rate. I doubt many people on the street would understand what that means, nor would people know of limitations on the existing system when it comes to reflections off things other than water droplets, such as changes in the refractive index caused by temperature inversions. Of course the radars are still the same, it’s just the extra post processing that’s being done to filter out unwanted signals. I only know they have made these changes by looking at the images and noting the differences and also by the fact they have actually stated the new radar image is showing rain rate, rather than radar reflection intensity, indicating they have added the post processing. Most likely they figured the general public wouldn’t understand the reasons for false echo signals and made no formal comms, but we’re all a bit smarter than the BOM people think 🙂
If you look at the Broome radar info on the old site they actually mention the issue you highlighted in this post.
https://reg.bom.gov.au/australia/radar/info/wa_info.shtml#broome17
Here is part of that summary below and if you click on the link above it will take you to the full text and an image that’s almost identical to what you show in your post, which is the echo coming back off the water. As an RF engineer, I’m very familiar with this effect and it’s a common feature on radio signals above 50Mhz, getting progressively stronger as you move up into the microwave bands used by radar.
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I get my forecasts from the App “Oz Weather” which does get its information from the BoM. At this stage it appears that its radar map is retrieved from the old site, which is great, but how long before the BoM cans it? They seem to be arrogant enough to insist we will all “adapt”.
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The BOM and Fox News Weather channel’s main function is deliver catastrophic propaganda.
They have to look for a serious weather event somewhere in the world and name it unprecedented but becoming more common.
The more the billionaire rent seekers back out of the [snip] knowing the gig will soon be up the more they are exposed.
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Be aware that Doppler radar is affected by the new 280mt wind turbines. That’s why you won’t see turbines near major airport flight paths.They give off false reflections which are air disturbance not rain or associated uplift.
The companies know this and so does government. It’s dangerous and misleading to anyone looking at the radar to see storms coming. The turbines appear on radar as an intense stationary storm.
Another of Bowen’s gifts to modernity.
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The Australian is now reporting that the BOM has done a backflip and will revert back to the old rain map. Thanks for your efforts on this topic Jo.
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Thanks Graeme4!
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No, they’re sticking with the new map… they are just restoring the previous radar colour scheme. In other words, they are going to show the rain intensity colour scheme which they used in the old radar images… but it will still be displayed on the new radar map.
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We had rain hail lightening and thunder in a small but noisy storm tonight on the Sunshine Coast. I initially went to my link for the Gympie radar but it just required a lot more keystrokes to get there and I couldn’t be bothered. Instead, I went to the windy app and chose one of their multiple maps which displays storms, coloured for intensity and with lightening. Much more useful.
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Completely [snip] bureaucratic organisation FLUSH IT . .
‘Nearly a billion dollars’: BoM chief indicates cost of IT overhaul to staff after refusing to disclose to senators
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/04/bom-chief-indicates-cost-of-it-overhaul-to-staff-after-refusing-to-disclose-to-senators
[Snipped for legal reasons. – J]
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Has anyone else noted that the delay time on the rain radar update is very different? (At least Perth tonight at 10 pm WST)
Old site: 1 to 6 minutes delay on real time.
New site: 17 to 22 minutes delay on real time. i.e. 1/3 hour behind real time.
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For this level of incompetence/arrogance/lack of awareness, there cannot be just ignorance.
Remember what Ian Fleming wrote in ‘Goldfinger’?
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
Let’s cast our minds back a decade.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott’s own department discussed setting up an investigation into the Bureau of Meteorology amid media claims it was exaggerating estimates of global warming, Freedom of Information documents have revealed.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt argued against investigation
Review found no evidence BOM had been adjusting figures
In August and September 2014, The Australian newspaper published reports questioning the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) methodology for analysing temperatures, reporting claims BoM was “wilfully ignoring evidence that contradicts its own propaganda”.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-24/government-discussed-bom-investigation-over-climate-change/6799628
Who do we believe????? The Australian or the BoM?
I believe the organisation who is trying to get to the truth.
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Sky News
BoM site update now priced at 84 million.
Resignations should be demanded by the Minister.
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THANK YOU Ms Nova for providing link to old site!
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