MetService provides weather and information presentation services to customers around the world from its base in New Zealand. It has particular expertise in supporting the media, aviation, and energy industries, and in national meteorological service operation.

Customers appreciate our services because they are based on combining professional meteorological judgement, technologically advanced processes, 24 by 7 quality management, and innovation in addressing their requirements. The company employs 180 staff, and headquarters are in Wellington.

Metra is the name for our international media, aviation and energy business. This is separate from our provision of meteorological services within New Zealand, where we produce and issue forecasts and official weather warnings on behalf of the Ministry of Transport, and are certified by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The company has been in existence since 1992, when it was established as a State Owned Enterprise. The annual report provides a record of recent market and technological developments, along with strong financial results.

MetService gathers, analyses and provides weather information for the public of New Zealand, and for a wide range of domestic and foreign commercial customers.

MetService History

The observation and studies of New Zealand's weather started as early as the 1840s. The weather forecasting service began in 1861, when a spate of shipwrecks prompted the Government to start a storm warning service as part of the then Marine Department.

Forecasting remained a marine service until 1926, when it became part of the newly-formed Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. At the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, forecasting became part of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The focus on aviation continued with a move in 1964 to the then Department of Civil Aviation, which in 1968 became part of a new "super ministry", the Ministry of Transport.

During the 1980s there was increasing pressure on government funding for meteorology in New Zealand, together with a government-wide move to "user-pays" for specialised services, and to more autonomy and accountability for government departments. A combination of commercial competition in the deregulated market for meteorological services, and reform of publicly funded science, led to the establishment of two government owned companies in July 1992.

1. MetService, a State-Owned Enterprise. Our business is operational meteorology, and we provide weather forecasting services to three main customer groups:
• The Minister of Transport (for the people of New Zealand)
• Civil and Military Aviation
• Media and Industry
  
2. National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). As one of nine New Zealand Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), NIWA's mission is to provide a scientific basis for the sustainable management of New Zealand's atmospheric, marine and freshwater systems and associated resources.

Vision

Soon after the establishment of MetService, we formulated a "vision"; it has been modified subsequently. We use it to guide everyone's daily work and decisions, and it has become a central focus for the company.

This Vision is how we would like to see ourselves described by a knowledgeable observer in a few years:

• A global leader in valuable weather and presentation services
• Growing through customer appreciation of our innovative solutions operational excellence and outstanding service
• Profitable and well organised by highly skilled enthusiastic and alert people passionate about the success of our company

Services for Customers

All of our services are provided commercially to customers. We are passionate about using the term "customers", rather than referring to "users". To us, "user" carries the connotation of someone who receives and uses services, taking what they can get, with little right to specify what the services should be, and little right to complain.

On the other hand a "customer" has clout, particularly in a deregulated, competitive market. Services provided must respond to their needs, and demonstrably bring benefits to them, or else they may take their money elsewhere.

Of course, many people using meteorological services do not pay directly. They may be receiving services paid for on their behalf by their government (to whom they, of course, pay taxes), or by their company, or by their newspaper, or by their radio or television station. This does not stop them from being treated as a customer, so long as they are "Someone who has the ability to influence a purchasing decision".

A Quality Business

Since the establishment of MetService as a State-Owned Enterprise the quality of forecasts has improved. Such improvements have come about because of focusing our research, development, training, and forecast operations on customer benefits, not just meteorology.

We have embarked on a quality management programme in accordance with the international ISO 9001 standard. Certification was achieved in November 1995. This was a world first for a National Meteorological Service operation.

Each country has its own public policy concerning the provision of its meteorological services, and to what extent they should be provided commercially. Our experience in New Zealand has been that the cost to the government has reduced substantially, the accuracy, range and availability of forecasts has increased, and our customers are purchasing more. It is a source of enthusiasm and challenge for the people in our company that they can participate in a business that is founded in meteorology.

Severe Weather Warning Performance Measurement

At the end of every calendar month the warning response to severe weather events is assessed with reference to the Severe Weather Warning criteria.

Warnings and Severe Weather event instances are defined in terms of the meteorological phenomenon and the region affected. For instance, if heavy rain associated with a depression affects Coromandel (Environment Waikato) and the area around Tauranga (Environment Bay of Plenty), then this is two instances of Heavy Rain. If the same depression brings severe gales on land in Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Taranaki, then this is four instances of Severe Wind. Each of these instances are marked according to the warnings that were issued taking into account the timeliness of the warnings.

The following marks are possible.

• Success - the severe weather was warned about a useful period of time before it commenced.
• Partial success - the useful warnings were lacking in some respect (size or location of the area affected; intensity of the phenomenon; timing). The warnings were mostly successful.
• Late - a warning was issued close to or after the commencement of the event.
• Missed - a severe weather event or instance occurred, but no warning was issued.
• False Alarm - warning for severe weather was issued, but the phenomenon did not reach the intensity criteria for warnings, or the area affected was small (less than 1000 square kilometres, a 32 kilometre square).

For the purpose of warning performance measurement Success and Partial Success are considered to be equivalent, and Late and Missed are considered to be equivalent. The Partial Success and Late conditions are identified for internal purposes because these marginal cases identify where the biggest improvements to the performance of the warning system can be made.

In each warning category (Rain, Snow and Wind) the monthly counts of Success, Missed and False Alarm are used to calculate the performance statistics "Probability of Detection", "False Alarm Rate", and "Critical Success Index".

• Probability of Detection (PoD) measures the proportion of successful forecasts against actual events.
• False Alarm Rate (FAR) measures the proportion of forecasts where the actual event did not reach the warning criteria.
• Critical Success Index (CSI) measures the proportion of successful forecasts against the total of successes, false alarms and missed events.

The calendar monthly values of these 3 measures for each warning type are averaged over 1 or 2 years for performance assessment and display purposes because the month to month fluctuations in these measures do not convey any useful information.

The monthly PoD, CSI and FAR values (expressed as percentages) for heavy rain are averaged over the previous 12 months. The monthly values for wind and snow are averaged over 24 months because there are fewer of those warning types. The resulting graphs are shown below.

Reference: "Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences" by Daniel S. Wilkes