4 ms·

New Zealanders pay taxes for a weather agency and a separate climate agency, neither of which provides weather local for most farms (one farm client of my agtec

New Zealanders pay taxes for a weather agency and a separate climate agency, neither of which provides weather local for most farms (one farm client of my agtech automation business is an hour from town; the weather report only applies to town). Additionally, the weather service is a "state owned enterprise" expected to turn a profit. So everyone who needs farm weather uses yr.no After covid, I'm going to go talk to some politicians about our weather forecasting problem.

tjpnz 4y ago
Who are you planning to talk to? A National MP will be in favour of just selling it and then bungle the IPO returning very little to the government. A Labour MP will propose opening it up but then get distracted trying to pass other legislation that nobody wants. That aside you might make some progress talking to the Greens if you framed it as an environmental issue.
kmlx 4y ago
> After covid what do you mean? are there still restrictions in NZ?
- PostOnce 4y ago
  Maskless face-to-face meetings are more effective than masked ones, in my opinion. Nevermind more effective than email or a phone call. I'd like to meet when I can have a frank discussion without a mask on so that we can gauge one another's sincerity and receptiveness to an idea.
  - roca 4y ago
    Why can't you have a maskless face-to-face meeting? I'm having maskless face-to-face meetings in Auckland all the time.
    - PostOnce 4y ago
      Well, my coworker's wife wound up in the hospital because he brought covid home, and I don't want mine to. I wear a mask, he never did. Case load hasn't dropped much yet. Also, even if I didn't care, there's no guarantee any of the politicians will meet me maskless yet.
esel2k 4y ago
Is weather forecast enough for agtech business. Until recently I was in that industry and apparently the local weather station was the way to go for accurate predictions. we have a few of these hardware companies here in Europe and always wondered why this was necessary, knowing that we have some of the most accurate predictions here in central europe. How is it for you in NZ?
- PostOnce 4y ago
  It's not that my business is weather, it's that I can't do certain things in the rain, and not being able to work out a schedule is a big problem. It can cost people and businesses a lot of money. It can cost the country a lot of lost tax revenue. If yr.no weren't providing us free weather, we'd get a lot less done, because we wouldn't know the weather 2 or 3 days in advance because our forecasters do not tell us what is happening a 45 minute drive up a valley from here.
xenadu02 4y ago
I'm somewhat surprised. The National Weather Service in the US has a website: https://weather.gov https://weather.gov. There is a radar map https://radar.weather.gov/ https://radar.weather.gov/ and forecasts https://digital.weather.gov https://digital.weather.gov. They also publish the data for free, such as map layers/radar https://opengeo.ncep.noaa.gov/geoserver/www/index.html https://opengeo.ncep.noaa.gov/geoserver/www/index.html or the weather forecasts https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/weather-climate-models/national-digital-forecast-database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/weather-climate-models/na... In the past The Weather Channel lobbied to get public access shut down but failed but most people selling weather data compete by building improved forecasts, local knowledge, etc on top of NWS data. It greatly lowers the barrier to entry for anyone wanting to get into the space.
- PostOnce 4y ago
  Commonwealth countries also have something called "crown copyright" unlike the US putting all tax-funded works in the public domain. I still don't really understand it.
- lkxijlewlf 4y ago
  I believe it was Accuweather (sic) and Rick Santorum.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
duanem 4y ago
I have a weather app on Android and, as a New Zealander, wanted to include NZ data. MetService made it difficult and costly. When I asked how much for radar data, they essentially asked how much the app earned. I wrote to MP Megan Woods about this but never got a reply. Philip Duncan of WeatherWatch in NZ has fought this in the past. There is also a PriceWaterhouseCooper report on MetService: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/5b3b826f79/weather-permitting-review.pdf https://www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/5b3b826f79/weather-permittin... My weather app has five weather models that cover NZ include a high resolution model from Expedition Marine, an NZ based meteorologist. I hope to bring model farming related weather data in the future.

tjpnz 4y ago

Who are you planning to talk to? A National MP will be in favour of just selling it and then bungle the IPO returning very little to the government. A Labour MP will propose opening it up but then get distracted trying to pass other legislation that nobody wants. That aside you might make some progress talking to the Greens if you framed it as an environmental issue.

kmlx 4y ago

> After covid what do you mean? are there still restrictions in NZ?

PostOnce 4y ago
Maskless face-to-face meetings are more effective than masked ones, in my opinion. Nevermind more effective than email or a phone call. I'd like to meet when I can have a frank discussion without a mask on so that we can gauge one another's sincerity and receptiveness to an idea.
- roca 4y ago
  Why can't you have a maskless face-to-face meeting? I'm having maskless face-to-face meetings in Auckland all the time.
  - PostOnce 4y ago
    Well, my coworker's wife wound up in the hospital because he brought covid home, and I don't want mine to. I wear a mask, he never did. Case load hasn't dropped much yet. Also, even if I didn't care, there's no guarantee any of the politicians will meet me maskless yet.

esel2k 4y ago

Is weather forecast enough for agtech business. Until recently I was in that industry and apparently the local weather station was the way to go for accurate predictions. we have a few of these hardware companies here in Europe and always wondered why this was necessary, knowing that we have some of the most accurate predictions here in central europe. How is it for you in NZ?

PostOnce 4y ago
It's not that my business is weather, it's that I can't do certain things in the rain, and not being able to work out a schedule is a big problem. It can cost people and businesses a lot of money. It can cost the country a lot of lost tax revenue. If yr.no weren't providing us free weather, we'd get a lot less done, because we wouldn't know the weather 2 or 3 days in advance because our forecasters do not tell us what is happening a 45 minute drive up a valley from here.

xenadu02 4y ago

I'm somewhat surprised. The National Weather Service in the US has a website: https://weather.gov https://weather.gov. There is a radar map https://radar.weather.gov/ https://radar.weather.gov/ and forecasts https://digital.weather.gov https://digital.weather.gov. They also publish the data for free, such as map layers/radar https://opengeo.ncep.noaa.gov/geoserver/www/index.html https://opengeo.ncep.noaa.gov/geoserver/www/index.html or the weather forecasts https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/weather-climate-models/national-digital-forecast-database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/weather-climate-models/na... In the past The Weather Channel lobbied to get public access shut down but failed but most people selling weather data compete by building improved forecasts, local knowledge, etc on top of NWS data. It greatly lowers the barrier to entry for anyone wanting to get into the space.

PostOnce 4y ago
Commonwealth countries also have something called "crown copyright" unlike the US putting all tax-funded works in the public domain. I still don't really understand it.
lkxijlewlf 4y ago
I believe it was Accuweather (sic) and Rick Santorum.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

duanem 4y ago

I have a weather app on Android and, as a New Zealander, wanted to include NZ data. MetService made it difficult and costly. When I asked how much for radar data, they essentially asked how much the app earned. I wrote to MP Megan Woods about this but never got a reply. Philip Duncan of WeatherWatch in NZ has fought this in the past. There is also a PriceWaterhouseCooper report on MetService: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/5b3b826f79/weather-permitting-review.pdf https://www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/5b3b826f79/weather-permittin... My weather app has five weather models that cover NZ include a high resolution model from Expedition Marine, an NZ based meteorologist. I hope to bring model farming related weather data in the future.