The Federal government has stepped in following a cyclone of controversy involving the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BOM) newly designed website.
The redesign was pitched as “a clearer, more accessible and secure website experience” that would support the eight million Australians who rely on it “when it matters most”.
But the website’s new overhaul was not met with praise, with hundreds of Aussies labelling it “atrocious”, “useless”, “disappointing” and “unnecessary”.
The BOM has now been pulled aside by the government due to the backlash.
Murray Watt, the Environment and Water Minister has requested a meeting with Peter Stone, BOM’s acting CEO on Tuesday after storms hit Queensland and Victoria at the weekend with the new website leaving many Victorians woefully underprepared.
“Today I requested a meeting with the Bureau of Meteorology Acting CEO, Mr Peter Stone, to discuss the public’s concerns with its updated website,” Mr Watt said in a statement.
“It’s clear that the new BOM website is not meeting many users’ expectations, with a significant range of feedback provided to the Bureau in recent days.
“In the meeting, I made clear my expectations that the BOM needed to consider this feedback and, where appropriate, adjust the website’s settings as soon as possible. This includes urgent consideration of improvements to the website’s functionality and usability.”
Mr Watt said he has asked the Bureau to organise a briefing with state and territory emergency services ministers this week to keep them informed of the steps being taken.
“Australians deserve to have confidence in these important services. My office and I will continue to engage closely with the BOM and ensure public safety is its foremost priority,” he said.
‘Dangerous’
Queensland residents revealed quite how close they came to disaster after erroneously checking the BOM website just before storms hit.
Speaking to A Current Affair Simon from Brisbane said he left his cars outside after checking the website even though he spotted the storm rolling in.
He was forced to run outside with a milk crate on his head after golf ball-sized hailstones started hitting his car. Meanwhile another resident was stunned when a 30 metre gum tree fell on his house. What’s worse is that his wife was out for a walk after checking the BOM website, which told her no storm was coming.
“To me it’s a trust thing,” her husband told Nine.
“You have a real trust relationship with that app and when that sort of fails then it’s annoying to say the least, or very dangerous.”
BOM’s new website comes as Australia enters its wildest weather month with fears that there will be casualties or worse.
‘Glaring issue’
There has been a lot of talk from meteorologists and government officials weighing in on the debacle.
Treasurer David Janetzki had sent a letter to Environment Minister Watt saying the BOM update was putting the “lives and safety of Queenslanders at risk”.
The Bureau says its forecasts and warnings are accessed more than 2.6 billion times each year, sometimes by people needing urgent updates on dangerous weather.
Channel 7 weather presenter Tony Auden claimed there was one “glaring issue” in the new update that is leaving a lot of Aussies in the dark.
“While it’s never been properly defined, we’ve always had a rule of thumb that black on the radar means hail, and it’s worked pretty well over the years,” Mr Auden said of the change to the radar scale.
“The new BOM radar view has essentially clipped the top end of the radar scale at orange, so we can’t see any detail in the biggest storms.
“I’d almost go as far as saying the changes in navigation and the changes in radar colour could almost be dangerous. People were severely underestimating the risk of the hailstorms that came through Brisbane yesterday based on the new colours.”
Wild storms knocked out power for thousands of homes and businesses in Queensland and Victoria over the weekend.
In southeast Queensland, energy provider Energex recorded 65,000 outages at one point on Sunday. Powercor in Melbourne had 28,485 outages.
‘An absolute s***show’
Others raised concerns about missing or inaccurate information. “Where is the information about rainfall, wind, temperatures at locations? Take a look at the map … some major errors and inaccuracies. Just go back to the previous version. Info needs to be easy to access,” one user said.
A post from the South Australian Weather Facebook page went further, calling the redesign “an absolute (poo emoji) show” and criticising “little or no public involvement” in its development.
Despite the criticism, some users praised the new design as more “simple” and accessible. “It’s actually very, very good,” one person wrote. “Simple – hits the main things you want to know on the first section … (like) what’s the temp NOW.”
BOM Acting CEO Dr Peter Stone acknowledged the negative feedback but said the rollout was “just the beginning”, with improvements planned.
“We designed the new website in consultation with the community to make sure it delivers the benefits people want and need,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Watt has urged Australians to continue providing feedback to ensure changes can be made where necessary.
“The BOM website is a critical tool to ensure public safety, particularly during the High Risk Weather Season and it must deliver the quality information our hardworking BOM staff are known for,” he said.
