Sunday, 25 January 2015 00:00

Weather apps limited – forecaster

Written by Rural News Group

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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.

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