@korina I realised today I hadn't checked out the New Zealand radar on the Windy for a month or so. I just looked and I noticed it looks like you have it online! Hooray! Right now it seems a bit glitchy, it only shows one image for the last hour. Hopefully that's just a temporary issue. :)

I also noticed you guys added New Caledonia as @idefix37 had suggested, so that was great to see too, and it works perfectly I see.

@tz Wow, that's very unfortunate about the MetService. Thanks so much for trying to do something.

I believe the problem is unlike most countries NZ's meteorological organisation is a "State-Owned Enterprise" so they are mandated to be profitable. That's a terrible idea for something so important -- in my opinion. And that's why the BoM in Australia (where I am right now) or Environment Canada are much more generous compared to the MetService in the data the public has access to.

At this point I think the best bet would be for any NZ citizens out there on Windy to write to their local MP to complain and alert them to the poor service the MetService provides. It may also be useful to report to the local media, stuff.co.nz has good local reporting, how New Zealanders are limited by this terrible arrangement for their domestic meteorological organisation.

Hello again @Korina ... I contacted the New Zealand MetService and heard back! They stated they are aware their weather data access is more restricted than other countries, so they are in the process of making changes. Hooray!

Apparently they are developing an API that will make a wider range of data publicly available, specifically aimed at supporting the development of innovative weather products, It should be available later this year. Current publicly available data information can be found here: https://about.metservice.com/our-company/about-this-site/open-access-data/

From what I can see though, radar data is already now available. Although not sure if that is the data that will work with Windy right now or you need to wait for their new API? Either way, hopefully this gets us closer to getting NZ radar data back on Windy! :)

@jmh2002 Agreed. I can try to assist again by contacting the NZ Met Service again, but it would be good to know that Windy is going to be able to do the work to hook this up if so. But it would probably be better if Windy contacted them directly I think since they are the ones using the data. :)

And the New Caledonia radar mentioned by @idefix37 would be great too.

@Korina Gotcha, thanks so much for the follow up. If you need people to write to the MetService / NZ Government to pressure them to open up their licensing let me know.

@Korina I'm sorry I missed your reply! I can't see a way on your forum to be notified (by email) of replies in a specific thread you follow or a way to get notified of direct replies. :(

Anyway, I was thinking it might be better for the request to come from your end since you'd have to be asking for the access as well at the same time? They seem really responsive and helpful. What they have available right now is:

3 hourly radar reflectivity (rainfall rate) images, in colour: available via MetWeb FTP access - contact us and ask for Open Access Rain Radar images

Let me know if don't hear from them and I can try emailing the guy I was conversing with again. Thanks!

@pillface I have also had a couple of emails back and for MetService. In February 2020 Brad from the MetService told me they realised the data they made public was lacking in comparison to other weather services around the world. They are updating their API to make more data available. It was supposed to take at most 18 months, which would mean it should be coming online now at the latest. Their exact quote was:

"However, we are making further changes to increase accessibility and reusability of observational weather data. For example we are developing an API that will make a wider range of data publicly available, specifically aimed at supporting the development of innovative weather products which should be available later in 2020. The new www.metservice.com will enable us to provide users with access to value-added data sets, including additional observational data. We intend to implement this capability in the future - likely in the coming 18 months."

It might be worth trying to email them again if you have time. I tried a few months ago but didn't hear anything back this time. So maybe I've worn out my welcome. :)

@dmalitz This answer below isn't exactly the same thing (I think), but for now it gets you close to what you are looking for (hopefully):

https://community.windy.com/topic/8606/water-vapor-layer/2?_=1635930341161

@tz Wow, that's very unfortunate about the MetService. Thanks so much for trying to do something.

I believe the problem is unlike most countries NZ's meteorological organisation is a "State-Owned Enterprise" so they are mandated to be profitable. That's a terrible idea for something so important -- in my opinion. And that's why the BoM in Australia (where I am right now) or Environment Canada are much more generous compared to the MetService in the data the public has access to.

At this point I think the best bet would be for any NZ citizens out there on Windy to write to their local MP to complain and alert them to the poor service the MetService provides. It may also be useful to report to the local media, stuff.co.nz has good local reporting, how New Zealanders are limited by this terrible arrangement for their domestic meteorological organisation.

@pillface I have also had a couple of emails back and for MetService. In February 2020 Brad from the MetService told me they realised the data they made public was lacking in comparison to other weather services around the world. They are updating their API to make more data available. It was supposed to take at most 18 months, which would mean it should be coming online now at the latest. Their exact quote was:

"However, we are making further changes to increase accessibility and reusability of observational weather data. For example we are developing an API that will make a wider range of data publicly available, specifically aimed at supporting the development of innovative weather products which should be available later in 2020. The new www.metservice.com will enable us to provide users with access to value-added data sets, including additional observational data. We intend to implement this capability in the future - likely in the coming 18 months."

It might be worth trying to email them again if you have time. I tried a few months ago but didn't hear anything back this time. So maybe I've worn out my welcome. :)

@korina Awesome, thanks for letting us know it's back online.

Next step, we need the MetService to allow for more than one radar image per hour. Not very useful for radar interpretation as it stands. And it looks bad when you zoom out and see all the Aussie radar animating nicely. There is a friendly NZ vs Aus competition down here, so maybe I should email them using that comparison to get them motivated. :)

I would say from checking out the MetService, Windy and Rainviewer that indeed they do look pretty similar.

It's great we finally have something for NZ again, but it is a major bummer that the radar images only update every hour or so instead of every 8 minutes as they do on MetService (and I think that time frame is industry standard).

I'm not sure if this is a limitation of their API @Korina? If it is I can try to email them and bug them about this.

@korina I realised today I hadn't checked out the New Zealand radar on the Windy for a month or so. I just looked and I noticed it looks like you have it online! Hooray! Right now it seems a bit glitchy, it only shows one image for the last hour. Hopefully that's just a temporary issue. :)

I also noticed you guys added New Caledonia as @idefix37 had suggested, so that was great to see too, and it works perfectly I see.

@Korina No major pressure but I was wondering if we could get some premium user support on this item please. 😋 And let me know if I can help.

@jmh2002 Agreed. I can try to assist again by contacting the NZ Met Service again, but it would be good to know that Windy is going to be able to do the work to hook this up if so. But it would probably be better if Windy contacted them directly I think since they are the ones using the data. :)

And the New Caledonia radar mentioned by @idefix37 would be great too.

@Korina I'm sorry I missed your reply! I can't see a way on your forum to be notified (by email) of replies in a specific thread you follow or a way to get notified of direct replies. :(

Anyway, I was thinking it might be better for the request to come from your end since you'd have to be asking for the access as well at the same time? They seem really responsive and helpful. What they have available right now is:

3 hourly radar reflectivity (rainfall rate) images, in colour: available via MetWeb FTP access - contact us and ask for Open Access Rain Radar images

Let me know if don't hear from them and I can try emailing the guy I was conversing with again. Thanks!

Hello again @Korina ... I contacted the New Zealand MetService and heard back! They stated they are aware their weather data access is more restricted than other countries, so they are in the process of making changes. Hooray!

Apparently they are developing an API that will make a wider range of data publicly available, specifically aimed at supporting the development of innovative weather products, It should be available later this year. Current publicly available data information can be found here: https://about.metservice.com/our-company/about-this-site/open-access-data/

From what I can see though, radar data is already now available. Although not sure if that is the data that will work with Windy right now or you need to wait for their new API? Either way, hopefully this gets us closer to getting NZ radar data back on Windy! :)