Local Weatherman Shares His Forecasts
Paynes Ford forecaster René van Sint Annaland. Photo: Ina Holst.
A weather website run by local forecaster René van Sint Annaland is available on the internet site www.goldenbaynzweather.info.
The live website aims to provide information for visitors and people living in the Bay who “want to know ‘Can I do my laundry today or not?’” says the weatherman.
From his home at Paynes Ford, René collects data on wind, rain, temperature, humidity, UV radiation and solar energy, measured per square metre, and keeps records with the help of his computer. The weather display on the website shows, with only a slight delay, the collected data from approximately 6am to midnight. In the case of severe weather warnings or in a significant weather event, it can also operate around the clock, just like the national MetService website.
In the summer months it can be useful to know UV radiation levels. René said the UV radiation in Golden Bay, which is dependent on cloud cover, pollution in the air and the ozone layer, often reached the upper “extreme level” of radiation on the international Ultraviolet Index, with readings of up to 16 units. His computer programme for the weather station comes from Europe, where UV radiation falls in the range of one to 10. Internationally, anything over 10 is classified as an “extreme” reading.
René started running a weather station while living in the Motueka Valley many years ago, and when he upgraded his station last year he decided to feed the information into a website, “just for the fun of it”.
“There is no local weather service. It is always for Nelson or the Nelson regions, and I thought getting something for the Bay would be nice. I do the weather forecast on the go and there are so many good sources,” he added.
“People are starting to know about it and in the summer I have more hits than in the winter, but the word is slowly getting out and the weather website is linked into the GB Promotions website.”
To complement his own weather data, René consults the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the Victoria University websites, and compares these with the MetService maps, which are more difficult to interpret.
“The Bureau of Meteorology has great isobar maps and the Victoria website is a good source. The MetService has been upgraded over the years and it is still a good service, but the isobar maps are too crowded—it makes your eyes water when you are looking at them. But, if you combine all three and apply what you know then it is not so hard to predict the weather for Golden Bay. It is not very technical.
“I have always been looking at the weather, ever since I was a kid. I always had little gizmos and I had two or three of these little weather-houses, with a man and a woman, which fascinated me. But it is just a hobby.”
Ina Holst
