15 February 2007
Mr Bruce Stewart Secretariat
Bureau of Meteorology Review GPO Box 1289
Melbourne Victoria 3008
ABC Submission to the Review of the Bureau of Meteorology
Dear Mr Stewart,
The ABC thanks the Bureau of Meteorology for the opportunity to contribute to this review of the Bureau’s activities and services.
As a long-time user of the Bureau’s services, the ABC enjoys an excellent relationship with the Bureau. The ABC’s weather reports, drawn from data freely provided by the Bureau, have become an important component of the information needs of millions of Australians. For those living in remote and regional Australia, where daily metropolitan newspapers are not available first thing, and where internet access is often unreliable, reports broadcast on ABC Radio have become an “essential service.” The ABC is also a primary emergency services broadcaster, providing Australians with timely and accurate information on natural disasters, for which it depends upon data and commentary supplied by the Bureau.
The ABC regards the information it receives from the Bureau as critical to its ability to provide these broadcasts. Any significant reduction in the level or quality of information that the Bureau supplies to the ABC would threaten the sustainability of its weather broadcasts. The same would be true if the Bureau was to begin charging for the information it currently provides at no cost.
The ABC has a number of suggestions about changes to the Bureau’s services that might allow the Corporation to better fulfil its obligations to inform the Australian public. These are set out below.
ABC Use of Bureau of Meteorology Services
The ABC provides a range of information, education and entertainment services to the Australian people through two television channels, four national radio services, 60 local radio stations and its website, ABC Online. This includes a full range of weather information, which is tailored to meet the needs of diverse audiences. It includes specialised weather bulletins targeted at primary producers and emergency broadcasts in relation to natural disasters.
To provide most of these services, the Corporation depends on information supplied by the Bureau. All weather reports for news bulletins on ABC radio and television services are prepared using
information provided freely by the Bureau via fax and email and from its websites.
In particular, the Bureau enjoys unique and immediate access to ABC Radio. In addition to bulletins, ABC Radio also broadcasts regular live-to-air interviews with dozens of duty forecasters and weather specialists every week. Bureau forecasters assist ABC Radio—particularly ABC Local Radio staff—
with planning, staff awareness and public education campaigns around the country.
The ABC considers the following information that is provided by the Bureau to be essential:
• Daily capital cities and regional forecasts
• Observations
• Three day outlooks
• Air quality
• All warnings
• High seas
• Rainfall
• UV index
• Radars and satellites
• River heights
• Climate predictions.
The weather is of particular importance to those engaged in primary industries. To support them, The Country Hour, which is broadcast on ABC Local Radio at noon on Monday through Friday throughout regional Australia, includes discussions with duty forecasters from the Bureau in every state about the outlook and forecasts for Australia’s farming regions, including special coverage of planting, growing, harvesting, shearing and other agricultural activities.
The ABC is now recognised as the primary mechanism for disseminating emergency services information to the Australian public. It has memoranda of understanding in relation to emergency services in place with all state governments other than New South Wales, where it is working to establish the multiple agreements necessitated by more complex agency relationships. In many regional areas, the ABC is the only broadcaster able to provide complete and timely emergency coverage.
The Bureau is responsible for all official warnings relating to cyclones, tsunamis, fire bans, road weather alerts, flood and frost warnings and sheep weather alerts. The ABC broadcasts all of these as appropriate across its services. The Bureau also provides immediate interviews for ABC Local Radio regarding rapidly-changing emergencies, such as fires, floods, cyclones and toxic gas clouds
anywhere in Australia, including the external territories, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The ABC regards this as an important and potentially life-saving relationship.
It should perhaps be noted that the Corporation does not receive all of its weather information from the Bureau, as it receives weather data for ABC Online and graphics and 3D animations for television weather reports from commercial provider The Weather Company. This reflects past circumstances:
when the ABC sought to establish comprehensive local weather reporting on ABC online, the Bureau
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was unable to deliver data feeds in XML format that the ABC could integrate into automatically- generated pages on its site. The Corporation thus opted to deal with The Weather Company, which was able to provide the required feeds and established a relationship with them. By the time the ABC renegotiated its contract with The Weather Company, the Bureau was able to provide the required data as a value-added service, but at a higher price than The Weather Company. The Corporation acknowledges that one of the consequences of this situation is that, as ABC’s radio and television weather reporting is based on information drawn directly from the Bureau, there is a potential for confusing audiences, as the two organisations often use slightly different language.
The ABC regards weather services as a critical part of its online presence and would be looking to increase and improve its weather presentation dramatically in coming years.
The Corporation believes that its existing relationship with the Bureau is mutually beneficial. It allows the ABC to provide its audiences with comprehensive, reliable and timely information, especially during emergencies. Without the information provided by the Bureau, the ABC simply would not be able to do this. At the same time, the relationship offers the Bureau platforms for nationwide and localised dissemination of weather information to the Australian public, as well as wide exposure of the Bureau and its expertise.
Local Weather Reports
In ABC Radio’s experience, listeners want increasingly localised weather information. Currently, automated weather station information is accessible via the Bureau website. However, these stations have not necessarily kept up with population growth. For example, local weather observations in Melbourne do not include the City of Geelong or anywhere on the Mornington Peninsula (see http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/vic/melbourne-observations-map.shtml). This prevents accurate weather information from being delivered on air to listeners in those locations.
ABC Radio believes more automated weather stations in key growth centres would be useful.
Primary Production Weather Reports
Primary producers are increasingly calling for further information that the ABC is currently unable to provide, such as longer-range weather forecasts. Similarly, horticulturalists would like to have evaporation rates included in radio weather bulletins. The ABC is interested in meeting these requests, but would need the Bureau to provide it with additional information to be able to do so.
ABC Radio would also like to broadcast more detailed seasonal and regionally-specific forecasts.
Specific regional agricultural forecasts for downy mildew, wind conditions for spraying, frost
predictions, severe weather alerts, and so on, could be carried on ABC Radio where provided by the Bureau.
Emergency Broadcasts
The Bureau is increasingly taking on a role as a first provider of natural disaster warnings. The ABC, with its nationwide broadcast coverage, is a key means by which such emergency information is transmitted to the public when and where it is needed. The community expects and depends upon these warnings. It trusts the Bureau and Corporation to deliver them.
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4 Ad hoc systems are in place in the cyclone states—Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland—under which the Bureau contacts ABC Radio and advises local broadcasters to issue warnings. During last year’s Cyclone Larry in Queensland these informal systems failed and key messages were not received for many hours. In other states, the Bureau relies on the web and fax to issue warnings to the community. If faxes are not viewed and websites not accessed, warnings cannot be issued. Current “cyclone watches” are issued at 5am and 11pm. The ABC believes that it would be more effective to issue warnings at peak listening times, for instance, 7am and 6pm.
The provision and delivery of emergency information by the Bureau could be significantly enhanced by establishment of a permanently-staffed Bureau emergency office, which would work within formal protocols to ensure warnings are delivered to the ABC. This office could also work with specialists in human behaviour and communications to determine the best way to deliver important messages to the Australian community.
The ABC is concerned that the lack of a formal emergency management process could have serious consequences in extreme emergency situations. For instance, if a tsunami was to strike the Australian coast, listeners might have as little as 30 minutes’ warning via ABC Radio under current protocols.
The ABC is also concerned that forecasters charged with the responsibility of delivering warnings to the community are often too busy to talk about the current or impending situation for more than a few minutes. The introduction of dedicated warnings staff with communication training would provide a stronger connection to the community and relieve the pressure on duty forecasters. They could also discuss Bureau education programs and deliver community and industry training where appropriate.
Bureau Web Site
The Bureau website is comprehensive. However, much information on it is difficult to access. The ABC would be keen to see the site’s navigation redesigned in a way that assists users in rapidly locating information. The Corporation suggests the US National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration site (www.noaa.gov) as a potential example of a more intuitively accessible site.
Such a redesign would particularly assist ABC Radio, as flow program broadcasters are increasingly reliant on satellite and radar imagery to draw weather pictures for their audiences. Larger coverage radar loops with an emphasis on rainfall would assist broadcasters to deliver predictive information quickly and reliably, and a national rainfall radar would assist primary producers to better predict weather impacts.
Should you have any further questions in relation to this submission, the contact officer is Dr David Sutton, who can be reached by phone on (02) 8333 2429 or by email at [email protected].
Yours faithfully,
Murray Green
Director, Corporate Strategy and Communications