Sunday, 25 January 2015 00:00

Weather apps limited – forecaster

Written by 

Farmers need to be aware of the possible limitations of international weather apps on their smartphones, says Phil Duncan of weatherwatch.co.nz.

While not discouraging farmers from using the apps, he says the problem is they lack any human input.

“So a farmer can get a lot of false hope from those apps which may say ‘80% chance of rain for four days’, but in fact you only get a drizzle patch or something,” Duncan explains. “So that’s where you need a New Zealand forecaster to come in and add local knowledge. 

Duncan says at present there is a touch of El Nino, which is helping to lift the air pressure around New Zealand and the Tasman Sea. Present patterns suggest New Zealand is heading for a ‘spring like westerly’ with  showers on the west coast and hot and dry and sunny conditions  on the east coast.  

www.weatherwatch.co.nz.

More like this

App eliminates tedious paperwork

A clever new app called HarvestYield is said to eliminate the tedious paper trail associated with job recording and worker timesheets, while also offering a suite of management tools.

Featured

Global Trade Uncertainty 'Likely To Remain'

Global trade has been thrown into another bout of uncertainty following the overnight ruling by US Supreme Court, striking down President Donald Trump's decision to impose additional tariffs on trading partners.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Bulldust!

OPINION: Here w go: the election date is set for November 7 and the politicians are out of the gate…

No good news?

OPINION: ECan data was released a few days ago showing Canterbury farmers have made “giant strides on environmental performance”.

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter