New Bureau of Meteorology radar caused confusion after storms rip through Queensland and Victoria

There are calls for Australia’s national weather service to re-examine key tools used by members of the public, days after a new website launched just shy of an explosive start to storm season.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) launched its new website on Wednesday, days before ferocious storms battered parts of the eastern Australia, leaving multiple homes damaged and tens of thousands of people without power.

New tools commonly used by members of the public have been noticeably changed in the website upgrade, including a radar system which previously allowed viewers to move between the past and future to see the location and passage of rain and thunderstorms.

The new radar only allows users to toggle back in time and to the present, leaving them unable to see the path of storms into the near future.

Meteorologist and 7NEWS weather presenter Tony Auden highlighted other issues with the new radar, including a change in the colour scheme, calling it a “glaring issue”.

“While it’s never been properly defined, we’ve always had a rule of thumb that black on the radar means hail, and it’s worked pretty well over the years,” Auden said.

“The new BOM radar view has essentially clipped the top end of the radar scale at orange, so we can’t see any detail in the biggest storms.

“This left a lot of people in the dark about the threat to their homes during the height of the severe weather yesterday.”

Severe thunderstorms, and even a tornado, crossed parts of south-east Queensland and Victoria on Sunday afternoon, bringing heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hail.

Homes were left damaged, and trees torn down across the two states, with over 60,000 homes left without power in Queensland, while in Melbourne over 25,000 outages were registered with Powercor.

Residents in the line of fire from Sunday’s storms said they were unable to predict when hail was coming on the new radar due to the colour change, with some saying they were left to underestimate the intensity of the storm.

“When I see the orange, I just think heavy rain,” one person said.

“The black of the old radar was helpful to know what was coming and to what intensity.”

Another person said they were speaking with a friend about the expected storms, but deduced from the new radar colours it was only rain.

“He calls me back and told me had hail,” they said.

“Not impressed, to say the least.”

A third person said the new radar did not work for people who are colour-blind, and that the “black is needed to define the intensity”.

The old radar can still be accessed on the BOM app, which has not changed with the website upgrade, and residents are always encouraged by BOM to check severe weather alerts on their website for written forecasts in their area.

The Bureau of Meteorology has been contacted for comment.

‘Poorly planned, poorly timed and poorly executed’

Auden, who worked at the BOM for many years, said one of the decisions made with the new radar that has changed the look so dramatically was BOMs decision to alter the units from decibels (dBZ), which is the raw unit from the radar, to millimetres of rain per hour, which is an indirect reading and an estimation.

“What they’re trying to do is make the radar more user-friendly for people that don’t really know what it represents,” he said.

“As a result, they’ve made it much less usable for the people that really rely on what we’ve been dealing with for years, that colour scale and those readings.”

The radar issue is a part of a larger systemic issue with Australia’s weather agency, Auden said.

“I know a lot of very talented and hardworking meteorologists there that do a great job, but they’re being let down by the systems and processes that the Bureau brings in.

“On some level, decisions are being made that aren’t the best for most of the users.

“Basically I take it that they’ve designed the website to become an app and apps are efficient at doing what they do, but sometimes you just need a website that has lots of information that’s easily accessible, and not necessarily simpler for the couple of people that just want one or two bits of information.

“I’d almost go as far as saying the changes in navigation and the changes in radar colour could almost be dangerous. People were severely underestimating the risk of the hail storms that came through Brisbane yesterday based on the new colours.”

Aside from the changes in radar colours, users have highlighted issues with the radar toggle allowing them to see into the future. However, Auden said this is something he is ok with in the new design.

“As a meteorologist, it’s probably a purer form of looking at things,” he said.

“So basically there’s a big difference between what has happened, this is what a radar is actually measuring in the atmosphere, and what might happen, which is an estimation — estimations looking forward from radar can be anything from pretty good to horrible.

“I don’t mind that (change) myself. Having said that, again, it’s another tool that people are used to that’s been changed very quickly.”

Telstra outage and thousands of insurance claims made

Suncorp insurance said they have already received more than 2,100 claims in Queensland, with about 1,000 for damage to home and about 1,100 for cars.

The top areas impacted include Bellbowrie, Jindalee, Moggill, Ripley, Ipswich and Redbank Plains.

There have been about 190 claims from the severe weather event that hit Victoria, with affected areas including central Victoria and the greater Melbourne region.

“We began receiving claims yesterday evening as the storm system moved through southern Queensland, with large hail and strong winds reported as the main causes of damage,” Suncorp Acting Executive General Manager Cath Stewart said.

“We encourage those impacted to lodge a claim online as soon as possible so we can begin the assessment process.

“We are using this technology to triage claims and mobilise our assessing teams and builders into the most severely impacted areas today.”

Mobile phone have also been affected by the storms, with some Telstra users reportedly remaining without phone calls, text messages and phone data on Monday.

“Yesterday’s severe weather has knocked out power to a number of premises, which is affecting a small number of our mobile sites, as well as some landline phone and internet services,” Telstra said.

“Our network sites have backup systems that keep services running after power goes out, but our sites can use the same amount of power as ten homes every day, so disruptions will occur if power’s out for a long time in your area.

“We have teams on the ground hooking up generators to affected sites to restore services where it’s safe to do so.

“We’re working to get everything back online ASAP, and we thank everyone for their patience.”

Nine schools were reportedly closed due to damage, down trees or power outages on Monday after the severe weather events in Queensland’s south-east.

Some schools, including Centenary High School, will remain shut today with multiple trees down, however the school has confirmed the year 12 external exams will still go ahead this afternoon.

Giant hail at over 5cm was recorded in Brisbane, with a tree set on fire in a Morooka backyard after a lightning strike.

Players forced from the field and fans left seeking shelter after the storm struck during a Samoa vs Tonga rugby game at Suncorp Stadium, while storms also halted play in Melbourne during the AFLW finals.

A lightning strike set fire to a two-story house at Templestowe in Melbourne’s north-east, with three people evacuated and a total of 34 firefighters needed to bring the blaze under control.