{"id":340770,"date":"2025-12-11T02:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/340770\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T02:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:51:12","slug":"bureau-of-meteorology-makes-major-changes-to-96-5m-website-after-refresh-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/340770\/","title":{"rendered":"Bureau of Meteorology makes major changes to $96.5m website after refresh backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has completed its first major round of changes to its embattled and expensive new website.<\/p>\n

The agency has been inundated with 400,000 items of feedback since the launch of the new site in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last month, the BOM revealed it spent $96.5 million on the website,<\/a> as part of a broader IT and security upgrades at the agency.<\/p>\n

The latest suite of changes include further updates to the rain radar, as well as warnings and temperature information.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The updated BOM website now includes a shortcut at the top of the homepage to the rain radar and weather maps page. (Supplied: BOM)<\/p>\n

New features<\/p>\n

This week’s update is the first major refresh of the new site since its launch.<\/p>\n

Bureau of Meteorology defends unpopular new weather website<\/a><\/p>\n

In a week of wild weather across the country, the Bureau of Meteorology’s new website missed the mark.<\/p>\n

It was originally scheduled to be rolled out in late November, but the update was delayed due to Tropical Cyclone Fina.<\/a><\/p>\n

BOM chief executive Stuart Minchin said some changes were planned but others were a direct response to concerns.<\/p>\n

“We’ve heard a significant amount of feedback about the new rain radar and weather map,” Dr Minchin said.<\/p>\n

“We have added a quick link button from the home page, increased the visibility of the map location pin and made it easier to customise the map.”<\/p>\n

The BOM previously made improvements to the way the radar was displayed.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"screenshot<\/p>\n

The BOM is continuing to seek feedback about its new website and app. (Supplied: BOM)<\/p>\n

It also made detailed fire information available on the new site after concerns were raised by volunteer firefighters<\/a> and people living in fire-prone areas.<\/p>\n

The latest refresh also includes refinements to the way warnings are displayed.<\/p>\n

The BOM said it would be easier for people to see at a glance if a location had an active or recently cancelled warning, with the use of yellow and grey colouring.<\/p>\n

The new site also has more information about daily temperature highs and lows on state, territory and district pages.<\/p>\n

70 million visits<\/p>\n

The BOM website is the most frequently visited Australian government site, and receives an average of 2 million visits a day.<\/p>\n

“Since launch, the website has had almost 70 million visits, and we have received more than 400,000 items of community feedback,” Dr Minchin said.<\/p>\n

He said that feedback had been taken on board.<\/p>\n

“Website development and improvements are guided by user feedback, analysis, user research and business needs,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We have an expert and highly dedicated workforce committed to providing the best possible service to the Australian community every day.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology launched a new-look website in October, resulting in a torrent of complaints. (ABC News: Greg Bigelow)<\/p>\n

The BOM is planning further updates to the site in the new year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has completed its first major round of changes to its embattled and expensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6884,41262,43,44,149594,61076,41,39,42,40,4126,1192,173935,140129],"class_list":["post-340770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bureau-of-meteorology","tag-cost","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-rain-radar","tag-temperatures","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-updates","tag-weather","tag-weather-warnings","tag-website"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}