The weather forecasting couch

By CHRIS DANIELS

In the 1983 film Superman III, evil Lex Luther manages to take control of a weather satellite, using it to unleash terrible storms that destroy coffee crops in South America, thereby making himself a fortune on the coffee futures market.

The plan inevitably comes unstuck, but - leaving aside the absurdity of satellites actually causing rather than observing weather - perhaps Luther should have waited until the birth of the internet.

The web offers us more access to weather information than Superman's foe could have dreamed of.

Weather, along with news, is one of the most popular attractions on the internet.

No self-respecting news site would be without a comprehensive weather section.

Good weather forecasts are offered on all major local news sites, including nzherald.co.nz, stuff.co.nz, xtra.co.nz and nzoom.com.

But for the best online weather information, the trick is to follow the cow cockies.

Gillian Moore, spokeswoman for rural website Fencepost.com, says the weather section is the most popular feature on the site.

"It is invaluable for farmers - they are running a business that is so weather-dependent.

"For things like fertilising pasture ... for a whole raft of things they do, they need to know about the weather."

The fencepost.com site even allows farmers to set up their own weather station, inputting rain data from sites across the farm.

The website runs the calculations and tells the farmer which part of the farm has had the most rain and what soil moisture levels should be.

Moore says the farmer can then determine the pasture growth in each paddock, which then allows him or her to go to the pasture planner and work out rotation.

MetService is a state-owned enterprise offering some good weather information from its home on the web, but the forecasters specialise in wholesaling their expertise to whoever will pay, says spokeswoman Megan McMillan.

"We provide content to as many of the major New Zealand sites as will buy it off us. We're not the only people in the market doing it.

"They all say it's a really valuable service."

McMillan says two main types of person want weather forecasts from the net.

First there are those who just wonder if it will rain the next day, but who may also want to know whether it is worth going to the beach next weekend.

The other type are weather-obsessed because a mis-read forecast could mean losing thousands of dollars of income, or even a life.

McMillan says MetService's free internet offerings are sufficient for most.

Predictions for the land show the likelihood of rain, wind and temperature, while the recreational, marine and coastal forecasts are more comprehensive.

"Those ones are really quite important. You don't want to go out to sea not knowing the forecast - it can be so changeable," she says.

For people who need just that little bit more information - farmers, tourism operators, concrete-layers and builders - MetService has an online service called Metnet, which offers more comprehensive or highly specialised forecasting for those who are willing to pay.

This service includes the latest satellite pictures linked together to run in sequence. Rain radar pictures show exactly where the showers are coming from and going to.

"Other people such as sailors like the observation part, which has information coming from all the automatic weather stations around New Zealand."

Many organisations - some city councils, for instance - will have weather on their websites, says McMillan.

"People go quite nutty over the weather, actually."


Fencepost - What do the farmers say? Too dry, when there is no rain. Too wet, when there is lots of rain. Requires registration, but is free of charge.

Snow.co.nz - Click on any skifield from across New Zealand. Webcams, snow reports, with weather updates coming soon.

Metservice - Here you can sign up for email alerts, where you will be emailed should an extreme weather event occur.

Wunderground.com - US-based site, with good global coverage and satellite pictures.

Weather.com - Home site of the Weather Channel, which has some good international forecasts and satellite pictures. Unfortunately, it gives temperatures in Fahrenheit and wind speeds in miles per hour.

Onthesnow.com - From Whistler to Whakapapa, ski cams from around the globe.

WeatherMatrix - This one is for the real weather nut, a worldwide organisation of more than 3500 amateur and professional weather enthusiasts, meteorologists, storm chasers and spotters, and weather observers from around the world. Features picture of waterspouts in Florida, news of killer heatwaves in India. Check out the lightning data, featuring constantly updated lightning statistics from around the world.