Copyright smh
Press-ganged into the climate wars, the Bureau of Meteorology should be acutely aware of avoiding controversy. But it has needlessly courted widespread fury with a $4.1 million website upgrade that has upset both its political masters and the Australian public. The BOM launched the new website last week as the storm and bushfire season loomed, with record October heat in parts of Queensland and NSW and deluges in Melbourne and Brisbane. People revolted against the redesign, claiming it was harder to read and less detailed than the old version. Media meteorologists were also angry and even one of the BOM’s own admitted on ABC Radio that he didn’t like the new site and was still using the old one. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli blamed the “flawed” website for failing to alert residents of south-east Queensland to be prepared for the weekend’s serious storms. Nationals leader David Littleproud piled on, saying the website upgrade was “a joke”, and farmers who relied on forecasting services had been long critical of the old website. The Environment Minister Murray Watt belatedly admitted the bureau was “not meeting many users’ expectations” and hauled in the bureau’s acting CEO, Peter Stone, to demand fixes to the website as soon as possible. Briefings are expected to be held by Friday with state and territory emergency services ministers.
