The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has sparked a storm of outrage after unveiling its new website.<\/p>\n
Billed as a “modern and sleek” update, the new website went live on Wednesday as a fatal storm prepared to batter the country’s south-east.<\/p>\n
The public forecast turned ugly, fast.<\/p>\n
The redesign was meant to make weather information clearer and easier to access.<\/p>\n
Instead, it has clouded public sentiment.<\/p>\n
The old BOM website has been replaced. \/ The new-look site has not go down well with some users. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)’Not happy BOM’<\/p>\n
The new website launch coincided with wild weather<\/a> and extreme heat<\/a> across Australia.<\/p>\n The feedback was harsh, as text messages to the ABC’s various state-based editions of the Country Hour attest.<\/p>\n “The new BOM site is unbelievably useless.”<\/p>\n “NOT HAPPY BOM.”<\/p>\n “BOM site is garbage and completely not useful anymore.”<\/p>\n “After pressing twenty different options I gave up and hit my phone with a hammer.”<\/p>\n “It’s telling me there is no information for my area. I’m in Korumburra (Victoria), checked Inverloch and no info there either. That’s crazy.”<\/p>\n “WHYYYY do so many organisations make so called “upgrades to websites” that are completely not user friendly.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Old site was ‘outdated’<\/p>\n BOM’s senior meteorologist, Miriam Bradbury, said the new website housed the same old information.<\/p>\n “The forecasts and warnings that you were accessing on the Bureau’s old site, they’re still available on the new site,” she said.<\/p>\n Wild weather hit southern states on the same day the new BOM website went live. (Supplied: Stephen Churcher)<\/p>\n Ms Bradbury said the previous website was outdated and needed to be refreshed.<\/p>\n “We were getting a lot of feedback from the Australian community explaining ways that it could be improved, commenting that it was looking quite tired,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n she said.<\/p>\n “Hopefully it’ll bring our website into 2025 looking much more modern, much more sleek, and it’s got a couple of new features.”<\/p>\n The old BOM website has been replaced. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)<\/p>\n Critical service<\/p>\n When Townsville commercial fisherman Nathan Rynn checked the website from his fishing boat, he was disappointed.<\/p>\n “We are very heavily reliant on those radar sites to be able to make the call or invest time to go out,” he said.<\/p>\n “We couldn’t see the kilometres per hour on the radar and the direction of the wind.”<\/p>\n He said he has heard concerns from other fishers and sugarcane farmers in North Queensland, who are similarly upset.<\/p>\n “I’ve seen on social media, people are pretty annoyed by it leading into storm season,” he said.<\/p>\n “We’re very disturbed why it was changed to this new system that seems way harder to navigate and doesn’t provide you real-time data.”<\/p>\n Nathan Rynn says he is disappointed with the new site. (Supplied: Nathan Rynn)<\/p>\n Michael Overington, a sheep and cropping farmer from Moyston in south-west Victoria, said the new design came as a shock.<\/p>\n And not a good one.<\/p>\n “I’m very disappointed with how the BOM has done this, for sure,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n he said.<\/p>\n “If you’re a spraying contractor, or haymaking contractor, or shearing, you’re very dependent on the weather and knowing if there’s any rain or wind coming.”<\/p>\n North east Victorian farmer Stuart Barber knew the new website was changing and had been looking forward to it.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, he was hoping to track the incoming storms to know whether he would need to move a flock of freshly shorn sheep.<\/p>\n “With the weather fronts coming through, it’s really important for us to be able to manage the (animals’) welfare and health,” he said.<\/p>\n “Trying to find what the observations were on the current site (was) challenging.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The severe weather blew in a dust storm near Swan Hill in Victoria’s north west on Wednesday. (ABC Rural: Warwick Long)<\/p>\n BOM encourages feedback<\/p>\n Ms Bradbury acknowledged the timing of the new website launch wasn’t great.<\/p>\n “Rolling it out had to happen at some point, and unfortunately, it’s just fallen when we’ve got a bit to talk about across the country,” she said.<\/p>\n “We understand that it’s really sort of confronting when something that potentially you use every day \u2026 suddenly changes.”<\/p>\n BOM is encouraging anyone with concerns to get in touch.<\/p>\n “We really just encourage you to explore it, have some fun, look at the new things that you can find on this site,” she said.<\/p>\n “By all means, leave us some feedback.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has sparked a storm of outrage after unveiling its new website. 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