Waiouru weather man part of national network

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 22, 22 October 1985, Page 9

Waiouru weather man part of national network

John Standish is a weather forecaster based at Waiouru Camp. He is surrounded by sophisticated instruments and computers which he uses to make regular reports to the weather communications centre in Wellington, where they are collated with other reports from round the country. These include reports for aviation use and continual reporting on weather conditions, such as local wind, temperature, cloud and rain, which all go into the national network to help forecast our weather.

Although accommodated by the army, John is a civilian employed by the NZ Meteorological Service, and is attached to I Locating Troop. He was seconded in April this year to lecture on climatic conditions to the artillery school, although this role is diminishing. He also provides information for any operations such as aircraft route forecasts, altimeter settings and backdated climatic material for use in army research, such as on the effects of humidity on certain types of amunition. John's office is open to the public and anyone is welcome to call on him for weather information. "I get a lot of calls from farmers for a long-range forecast to help them decide whether to do haymaking or shearing — I also get a lot of ski enquiries," he said. John has had to field a lot "of questions on why Wai-

ouru doe§ not appear on the TV temperature charts. "The official reason is that Waiouru is high and therefore will always be colder, but a lot of people here have said to me that they wish it was on the chart." "If peoplef feel it is unfair that Waiouru is not mentioned they could write to the director of the New Zealand Meteorological Service if they want," he said.