This week the subject of our poll was one close to WeatherWatch.co.nz’s heart – and it’s something we’ve written about many times on the site, and received a lot of feedback on!

We wanted to know if you, our readers, believed the NZ media ‘overhype’ our weather coverage and predictions – because this year in particular WeatherWatch.co.nz has seen a steady decline in the quality of weather news journalism from the mainstream players. 

Here are a few examples:

90km/h winds in Wellington described as ‘fierce’ and ‘slamming’ the city.

Half a news story about drizzle falling in Auckland

Snow storms that will ‘cover the entire country’ but only affected the deep south

Not to mention the overuse, or misuse, of these terms: Slammed, Hit, Blasted, Pummelled, Batten down the hatches, Storm, Weather Bomb, Severe Gales, Vicious – to name a few.

And it seems that our readers agree! 86% of respondents voted “yes – it’s mostly hype”, and this was backed up by some of the comments both here on the site and our Facebook and Twitter feeds.

One visitor wrote:

“It would be nice if media used all 3 forecasters ( 2 Govt funded, WW no funding) without the bulldust and hype.

Also suggest that NZ Govt (Met & Niwa) makes data freely available like in other countries.“
-Anonymous

Watch this space for our new poll, coming later this afternoon!