Weather Website Woes: Bureau of Meteorology Under Fire After $4.1 Million Redesign Disaster
- The Bureau of Meteorology’s new website has sparked outrage among Australians, with farmers and emergency services ministers calling for urgent changes.
- The $4.1 million redesign has been labelled a “complete cock-up” by users, who claim it’s difficult to navigate and doesn’t provide the necessary information.
- The federal government has stepped in, ordering the BOM to fix the website after a torrent of complaints, with Energy Minister Chris Bowen admitting the changes have “lost community confidence”.
Australians are up in arms over the Bureau of Meteorology’s new website, with many claiming it’s a disaster. The $4.1 million redesign, which went live last week, has been labelled a “complete cock-up” by users, who say it’s difficult to navigate and doesn’t provide the necessary information.
“I’m the person who needs it and it’s not giving me the information I need,” said Malcolm Taylor, a northern Victorian agronomist who relies on the website for his work. “It’s clearly been designed by IT nerds who’ve got no understanding of the client’s needs.”
Mr Taylor is not alone in his criticism. Nationals leader David Littleproud has called for a review of the website, saying locals in his Queensland electorate of Maranoa struggled to find information they needed after a recent rain event.
“I am hearing from many locals that the new platform no longer allows them to enter GPS coordinates for their specific property locations, restricting searches to towns or postcodes,” Mr Littleproud said in a statement. “Others have found the website difficult to navigate and note they cannot locate the radar function without extensive exploration of the site.”
The Bureau of Meteorology has acknowledged the significance of the website change and apologised for the challenges it has caused. “It’s clear we need to do more to help people through the change, both by making adjustments to the website and by helping users to understand its new features,” said Dr Peter Stone, BOM acting chief executive.
But for many users, the apology comes too late. The website has already sparked a social media storm, with many calling for the BOM to go back to the drawing board.
The federal government has stepped in, ordering the BOM to fix the website after a torrent of complaints. Energy Minister Chris Bowen admitted the changes have “lost community confidence” and said the BOM needed to “consider this feedback and, where appropriate, adjust the website’s settings as soon as possible”.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s new website receives about 1.8 million visits every day, with numbers increasing to 5.7 million during extreme weather. But with the current design, many users are finding it difficult to access the information they need.
As the BOM scrambles to fix the website, many are left wondering how such a costly redesign could have gone so wrong. One thing is certain – the BOM has a long way to go to regain the trust of the Australian public.