'Put us on the map': Hastings mayor fumes as MetService removes city from weather map

The new MetService site misses out a city with more than 80,000 people. Photo/ Supplied

MetService's new website has left Hastings, population 80,600, off its New Zealand weather map, and the city's mayor is not happy.

New Zealand's national meteorological service has refreshed its website and the new look is available to preview from Thursday.

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said Hastings needed to have its own place in the sun on the national weather map - as it had on previous versions of the website.

The old MetService site. Photo/ Supplied.

"We are a large district, made up mainly of inland and rural areas. Many of our growers and farmers need reliable weather forecasts for their livelihoods.

"Our weather can also vary markedly from the ranges in the west to the coast in the east.

"Our weather is often quite different to Napier and we certainly think we are much warmer and drier than our close neighbours.

"We'd urge the MetService to put us on the map like we deserve."

A MetService spokesperson said it had streamlined the homepage map so people could see a snapshot of the weather affecting the country though more weather icons on the map.

"Some people use the homepage map to navigate to their favourite location, so we've coupled this change with the ability to 'favourite' your most-visited locations and enhanced search functionality."

Views can choose Hastings as their favourite spot and it will be visible from any page they visit, the sponesperson said. The town will also be listed in a "towns and cities" menu. Residents of the northern Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa were likely to be delighted - it has been added to the town and cities pages.
MetService chief executive Peter Lennox said weather was integral to people's safety, their day and livelihoods.

"We're always looking at how we can enhance the vital information we provide New Zealanders. We've listened to the feedback of our audiences, which has helped us shape the new site.

"This upgrade provides us with a more flexible web platform, which allows us to be more adaptable as the future of forecasting evolves," he said.

MetService digital product manager Stephanie Raill said the website isa destination that people relied on to plan their day.

"The layout of the pages has changed but no content has been removed.

"We've just made it easier to find the most relevant forecast, in a variety of ways for the very broad range of people who use the website.

"We can better communicate urgent and critical information such as severe weather warnings." The refreshed site can be accessed by going to beta.metservice.com. The refreshed site will run alongside the original website over the coming months.

"We're really excited to launch this new site and encourage feedback from New Zealanders," said Raill.