New Zealand’s news media is reaching new lows – once famous for covering every Fiordland rain warning like it was the top story of the country – now media is relying solely on weather warnings and watches to generate massive headlines – ie, potential risks are now making major headlines with no NZ media outlet ever double checking if their story and big headline was actually accurate in the first place.

It’s called “click bait” – get someone to click on a story = dollars made for the news outlet. Doesn’t matter if the story is accurate or not.

In the past few weeks most of New Zealand’s mainstream news media – from government owned to privately owned – has predicted armageddon type forecasts – El Nino bringing droughts worse than the 90s, floods that are ‘epic and historic’, snow storms that cause ‘chaos’, overnight lows that are “record breaking”.  Ask anyone with grey hair if this is accurate and they laugh – most can recall worse in living memory.

We can’t control the recent ridiculous over the top sensational news headlines from some of New Zealand’s biggest news outlets – all we can say is, if you see an armageddon forecast – verify it with the news and forecasts we have at WeatherWatch.co.nz before sharing that forecast or story with the world.

We aren’t the biggest forecaster in New Zealand – but we sure like to think we have the most balanced view on what is happening…because if we get a forecast wrong we directly lose clients.  Government forecasters get funding regardless.  It is totally up to you to trust which forecaster and news outlet is most reliable – so if you think we’ve burnt your trust we want to know that too.  Our goal is to improve the quality of all weather news and forecasts in New Zealand.  

– WeatherWatch.co.nz