> From the WeatherWatch archives
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
China and America are both currently in the firing line for two big storms, Tropical Storm Edouard in the Gulf of Mexico and Typhoon Kammuri in the North West Pacific.
Typhoon Kammuri is still at the lower end of the scale but could bring flooding to Hong Kong as it nears the large city. At this stage the storm looks as though it will have little impact, if any, on Beijing and the Olympics due to its southern location.
Due to our connections with Weather.Com in Atlanta, Georgia, we have detailed coverage of Tropical Storm Edouard.
Edouard moving slowly and better organized
By Tom Moore, and Mark Avery, Lead Meteorologists, weather.com
In the northern Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Edouard the fifth named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season continues to move slowly westward toward the Upper Texas Coast and southwest Louisiana.
The official forecast keeps Edouard as a strong tropical storm as it moves toward the Upper Texas Coast or southwestern Louisiana Coast making by early afternoon Tuesday (USA Time). There is a small chance it could reach minimal hurricane intensity before making landfall.
Hurricane Watches are posted from west of Intracoastal City, Lousiana, to Port O’Connor, Texas.
The track of Edouard is toward the west-northwest on the southern periphery of a strong upper-level high pressure ridge that is contributing to the record-breaking heat baking the south-central U.S.
The rainfall and clouds from the system will move into Texas Tuesday into Wednesday local time. One benefit from Eduoard will be rain into the drought areas of central Texas and some easing of the terrible heat wave ongoing.
IS THIS STORY RELEVANT TO YOU?
Post a comment! Do you want more international coverage or less? Post your opinion here.
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Before you add a new comment, take note this story was published on 5 Aug 2008.
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Hamio on 6/08/2008 8:48am
I agree with some of the others that maybe major weather events internationally when NZ is having great weather is fine on here. Could you imagine no exciting weather happening in NZ, this site over summer might become redundant. Having something to fill in the gaps might keep the lurkers coming in here, no exciting weather reports = no readers, so the international reports might just keep the punters coming in. I for one pop in a couple of times a day for a nosey at what is happening and am very pleased along with many people I have spoken to about this site..(seems whenever I suggest this site to people now they reply OH yeah we go on there to get weather updates) so people certainly know about this site now, it’s keeping them here when NZ’s weather becomes rather boring. Just my 2 cents worth..keep the great work!
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WW Forecast Team on 6/08/2008 9:44am
Hi Hamio
Thanks for your feedback. Actually the Weather Watch Centre has been running for two years now (but only online for 2 months). We’ve been supplying regular news stories to our Radio Network stations (See below for our stations). I have had to supply daily news stories to Newstalk ZB News and our music stations over two summers and believe it or not New Zealand DOES have regular news even in the quiet Summer months. This year we had plenty of drought news, tracking every potential rain band and reporting on which regions might see some moisture. Last year we had some huge daytime highs, and some of our press releases were picked up by the news division at the UK’s MetOffice. It may not be as sensational as the news stories of the previous month but it’s definitely interesting.
Also, when the weather does get quiet, please feel free to Contact Us with topics you might want us to cover – or simply if you want to start a conversation thread for other weather watchers to reply to. We want this site to represent every day kiwis.
If you (or any other readers) have any ideas as to what would make you frequently visit this site in Summer (or during long sunny spells) please let us know! We want to make this site as interesting as possible for you!!
Thanks again for your feedback – it means a lot to see so many supportive and constructive comments.
Cheers!
Philip Duncan
RADIO NETWORK STATIONS:
Newstalk ZB, Classic Hits, ZM, Coast, Radio Hauraki, Radio Sport, Easy Mix, Flava.
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Shelle on 5/08/2008 8:41pm
I was interested and pleased to see the international weather comments on your blog this morning. Given the Olympics are in China – I think this is both relevant and topical (by the way – do you have maps, more info on the China hurricane?).
One of the things I love about the WW blog, is that you provide comment on weather issues, not just facts – facts we can get anywhere – comment, education information about weather systems, even opinion are harder to find.
I’d be keen to see major weather events around the globe reported regularly on WW. Obviously the main focus of your blog is NZ weather, but the international perspective provides interest and education about weather systems generally.
Reply
WW Forecast Team on 5/08/2008 11:41pm
Hi Shelle,
Thanks for your feedback – it’s definitely appreciated. As I said to David (below) I’d be keen to add occasional international stories but the focus does need to stay on NZ. But certainly when weather is quiet here (like today) having an international piece that is relevant to us (like the storm approaching China) is worth while.
To be honest I haven’t had much luck finding sources for the storm approaching China. (Haven’t really had the time to look).
Maybe fellow Weather Watch readers could post some links here for you?
I know that the storm is now likely to move further south and west of Hong Kong.
Cheers
Philip Duncan
Reply
David on 5/08/2008 10:48am
With all due respect, my opinion is that if I want international weather news I can find that in 1000 different places. The thing I like about this site is that it’s firmly focused on NZ.
So I’d vote for less International coverage unless it somehow affects or is relevant to NZ weather.
Reply
WW Forecast Team on 5/08/2008 10:51am
Hi David – your feedback is much appreciated and tends to fall under how I feel. However Foehn’s comments below also make a good point. Perhaps International Weather News is ok when NZ news is quiet?
I may be wrong though – your honest feedback is definitely appreciated!
Kind regards
Philip Duncan
Reply
David on 5/08/2008 10:11pm
Fair comment.
Firstly, you have a great site here – thank you.
So you know where I’m coming from – as a *HEAVY* RSS user, I use feeds to keep the amount of irrelevant information I have to sift through low or zero. So subscribing to a NZ weather site lets me choose to read just about NZ weather. If I have to occasionally mentally filter out non-NZ stories in my favourite NZ-weather feed then it’s no longer quite what I thought it was. And from there, it’s a slippery slope! 🙂
With that in mind, maybe the NZ-only weather could be published in a new feed? I.e. international weather could be tagged/filed as ‘international’ and publish a new RSS feed that includes everything except ‘international’? Obviously keep the existing feed too.
A longer term solution might be to use consistent tagging (multiple tags per story too) and allow customisable feeds – where a user can subscribe to a feed based on tags specified in the feed URL.
That said, the occasional international story isn’t going to hurt anyone as long as the local content is maintained and I’m not complaining, just offering my opinion 🙂
— David.
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WW Forecast Team on 5/08/2008 11:38pm
You make very good points – and I absolutely realise you’re not complaining. I want this site to be partially built by those who read it. If you have comments on how we can improve or what you’d like to see, please let us know.
Possibly a rare international story when things are quiet here in NZ would be ok – esepcially if it’s relevant. (ie hurricane’s in America affecting Oil Prices or a storm affecting the Beijing games).
Thanks again for your input – will pass your comments on to our developers.
Cheers
Philip
Reply
Föehn on 5/08/2008 10:13am
I get regular updates of weather from Upper New York State, as I correspond with long-standing pen friends (now email friends) from there. I find that interesting as they can get some fearsome thunderstorms up there.
I think international coverage would be both complimentary and add variety when our own weather is cruising along doing nothing in particular.
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