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Karsten said...
Thank you Ambler, for good info on the broadcast synoptic charts.
Online, I think BOM may supply real time data but only commercially and for a fee. So I guess it's to be expected that the public will only get data delayed by hours.
I visited the Met Service last year in Wellington and was shown over the whole operation including a walk around the roof to see how their instruments pick up what is occuring. The thing that impressed me most is the number of weather stations, satellite data and reports they have to annalyse before they can go public with the actual synopsis of what is happening now and prognosis of what more than likely will happen.
NZ has now got access (and Aus too) of a new weather satellite the Japanese have. It delivers so much information that the Met Service had to buy new super computers to digest, analyse then deliver a result in a reasonable time to be usefull.
In short the delays are still there but getting better. Some things are available imediately on line such as rain radar with time steps so you may see if its coming your way. Other than that I am not sure BOM can give any better service than we already get for free. They offer some specialised forcasting for an ocean passage if you can give them departure time, origin, destination, average speed etc but so does a grib file which I use.
There are so many good books on weather forcasting too especially for sailors.
I have always enjoyed speaking to meteoroligists whenever I had an opportunity such as boat shows.
Cheers