In our first weather video of 2017 we bring you a special update on Cyclone Debbie as it now reaches Severe Category 3 and may reach Cat 4.

Head forecaster Philip Duncan takes a look at Debbie’s progress over the coming days and also at how it might affect the rain and weather patterns around both eastern Australia and New Zealand as we head into April.

Please note: The Track map in the video has already been updated by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) since we recorded. It is still likely to reach Category 4. You’ll see the very latest tracking map here.

FUTURE OF FORECAST VIDEOS AT WEATHERWATCH.CO.NZ
Today’s video was made via our new live Web Studio. We’re actually building two studios – one with a big green screen as we had before and the other to better cover sudden or big events. We’ve found over the years sometimes it can be hard to get a studio full of people to make a weather video during a significant event. Having a web studio means we can now go live when we need to – and do it faster!

We actually weren’t ready to go live today but this event is critical to cover and was definitely worthy of ‘jumping in there’ and updating with so many of you asking us questions. You’ll notice a few obvious quick edits and the fact we’re even still trialling some software! But we’re working on better audio, better quality images and more content across the year. We have a lot of work to do and this is only phase 1 of about a 3 or 4 phases to upgrade our video services. 

With no tax funding like our main competitors we’re working hard to get both these studios operating on a frequent basis. So hang in there with us – we really appreciate your fantastic support recently (and patience!) and we’re dedicated to delivering new and different video content as we continue to grow our resources to better cover what you need from us. We hope you’ll notice the improvements in time.