Industry Specific

Specialist forecasts - Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP)

MetService offers computer generated NWP weather forecasts for any location in New Zealand. 65-hour forecasts are updated every six hours and are available for the following parameters:

• wind (at various heights)
• air temperature
• relative humidity
• rainfall
• cloud
• freezing level

Combinations of these forecast parameters are available, or we can design NWP forecasts that incorporate your specialist variables in order to provide a value-added forecast service. All we need from you is the location (latitude and longitude) and altitude of your site. If you have on-site weather observations available, and they can be routinely delivered to us, we can improve the quality of your site-specific forecasts more by ingesting these into our NWP model.

The following example shows hourly forecast wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature and relative humidity with two specialist user-specific indices.

Manually written specialist forecasts

MetService's forecasters are trained to World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Class I standard, and provide a high quality 24-hour weather forecasting service. If you have a weather forecasting need that requires specialist comprehension and analysis, our trained meteorologists can help.

Specialist forecast - mixed NWP and manually written forecasts

If you have a requirement for specialist site-specific forecast services, we can combine the output of our site-specific NWP generated forecasts with manually written commentary and interpretation to provide the full picture of expected weather conditions at your location of interest.

Consultancy

If you require authoritative meteorological consultancy in order to settle a dispute or require a detailed and comprehensive analysis of a weather event, contact our Consultant Meteorologist.

Lightning observation services

On average, one in every ten lightning discharges strikes the ground (or sea). Every year, around 45,000 lightning strikes, with an average peak current of 26,000 amperes terminate to ground in New Zealand.

The New Zealand Lightning Detection Network (NZLDN) locates these strikes and provides details of each event. Generally, the location of cloud to ground strikes can be determined to within approximately 1km.

Cloud to ground lightning strike information can be provided as:

Raw Data

Strike date/time, latitude, longitude, peak current, polarity, strike duration.
Useful for insertion into your own GIS plotting systems in order to correlation asset/system damage with nearby lightning activity. Example of Raw Data Output...

2004/05/26,19:37:34,-34.5402,177.3593,-54.8,11.3,0.9,3,6.4,23.4
2004/05/26,19:37:34,-34.6492,177.3355,-24.2,1.9,0.5,6,2.6,19.8
2004/05/26,19:37:34,-34.6372,177.3748,-20.0,1.9,0.5,4,4.0,15.8
2004/05/26,19:37:34,-34.7922,177.0561,-7.8,49.4,1.0,2,1.4,20.6
2004/05/26,19:41:42,-34.5264,177.3358,-20.8,2.0,0.5,4,2.8,19.2
2004/05/26,19:41:42,-34.5271,177.3310,-29.3,2.0,0.5,4,2.0,24.6
2004/05/26,19:41:42,-34.5285,177.3274,-36.3,2.0,0.5,4,1.8,20.2
2004/05/26,19:43:41,-34.5688,177.3586,-18.3,2.0,0.5,4,1.8,27.2
2004/05/26,19:43:41,-34.5588,177.3670,-22.8,2.0,0.5,4,1.6,22.0
2004/05/26,19:45:25,-34.5502,177.3329,-21.7,2.0,0.5,4,2.8,21.8
2004/05/26,19:45:25,-34.8510,176.7533,-7.8,39.7,0.9,2,1.2,30.2
2004/05/26,19:48:45,-35.5638,177.4984,-14.4,1.4,0.5,4,2.2,16.6

Lightning verification reports

These reports document the lightning activity over a defined area of interest and period of time. These reports are often required by the insurance industry in order to verify lightning related claims.

Lightning density maps

Lightning density maps are useful to determine the threat your existing or planned assets are exposed to in regard to the likely occurrence of cloud to ground lightning strikes. Lightning density maps are generated from New Zealand Lightning Detection Network data. This network commenced operation in September 2000.
Lightning density maps plot the density of cloud to ground lightning strikes over a specified rectangular region. The rectangular region is divided into a grid of square cells. The number of cloud to ground lightning strikes in each grid cell is counted and divided by the area of the cell. The resulting densities are then colour coded to indicate the stroke density range of each grid cell.

Lightning strike maps

Lightning strike maps are useful if you require a general indication of where cloud to ground lighting activity was recorded in a specific area, over a specific time.

MetStrike website

The MetStrike displays the last five days of cloud to ground lightning activity over New Zealand and surrounding waters. Lightning strikes are colour coded in order to determine the age of the strike. The red crosses represent lightning strikes that occurred within the last hour. The MetStrike website updates every 15 minutes.

MetStrike website

If you need to know when cloud to ground lightning activity is being detected near your assets, you may be interested in a lightning alert service. This service will automatically email you when cloud to ground lighting is being detected within a defined radius from your location of interest. These emails will report every 15 minutes while lightning is being detected in your defined area.

Brief Lightning forecasts

If you are operating in lightning sensitive operations and require prior notice of likely lightning activity, brief lightning forecasts will be of interest to you.

EXAMPLE:
Brief Lightning forecast
Weather Situation
A low and associated front is moving eastwards across the North Island today. A cold front is expected to move northwards over the south of the North Island Sunday afternoon.
Lightning probability for 50km radius from Petone

• Saturday: LOW
• Sunday: MEDIUM (2pm - 10pm)

Crane Forecasts

If your work involves operating tower cranes, you will know how much wind speed affects your operations. Crane forecasts provide forecasts of expected wind speed for your location of interest over the following 24 hours.

Rain Radar

Rain and construction sites don't mix. Use our Doppler rain radars to view where approaching rain is, how heavy it is, and where it is moving. Rain radar imagery updates every 15 minutes and available for Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne/Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury and Southland.