It’s official – WeatherWatch.co.nz is NZ’s most trusted private forecaster and RuralWeather.co.nz is most used by farmers.

The Nielsen Ratings 2022 survey was focused on farm owners, workers and lifestyle blockers – or put another way, the main group of New Zealanders who value and purchase weather forecasts and data on a regular basis.

WeatherWatch.co.nz CEO Philip Duncan says the ratings were somewhat of a surprise, but says the rural and agricultural sector was a focus “to win over” in previous years. “Despite making significant investment in this sector we’re surprised at the ratings only because mainstream news outlets in recent years have had an almost exclusive focus on promoting Government forecasts 24/7. These independent Nielsen media ratings prove that the public rank WeatherWatch and RuralWeather Number 1 when it comes to private sector forecasts and accuracy”.

RuralWeather.co.nz was a spinoff website launched by WeatherWatch.co.nz in 2020 as covid-19 lockdowns were starting. It was designed to drill down deeper on local data to bring it to life and support those who were growing vegetables & fruit, sourcing meat and creating wine.

“10 years ago WeatherWatch was entirely about supporting media, but the mainstream news media’s bizarre loyalty to Government-only forecasters [whilst trying to say they are an independent voice themselves] has given WeatherWatch enormous breathing room and credibility to focus on a sector that solidly depends on accurate forecasts and data, not hype and clickbait” says Duncan. “Clickbait in our industry would relegate WeatherWatch to the history books as a company, we get no government handouts so we must always be obsessed with accuracy, obsessed with being better and always focused on being there to help New Zealanders whose livelihoods depend on accurate weather information 24/7″.

Mr Duncan says WeatherWatch and MetService’s new found friendship means New Zealand’s two most popular forecasters are now finally trying to work together to do an even better job. “It’s exciting what 2023 and beyond will hold, a couple of years ago we would never have imagined being in this position” says Duncan.

While WeatherWatch.co.nz is proud to be a NZ owned and run business, we’re also proud to be an official IBM Business Partner. Duncan says “We’ve had confirmation from IBM overseas in recent weeks that what we’re doing here in NZ with their data is like no other country on earth, the amount of people ‘pulling IBM data’ stands out on a global scale to them. This is likely a combination of IBM’s very accurate and hyper-local data finally being openly used here in New Zealand by WeatherWatch and RuralWeather as Government forecasters like NIWA claim public data is their “property” and block free and open use to it – coupled with the passionate Kiwi obsession with wanting to know every precise movement of the upcoming weather forecast”.

As tax funded Government forecasters, like NIWA, resist sharing weather data with the same people that tax fund their entire existence, privately run WeatherWatch has gone the other way and paid the cost to IBM ourselves to make so much weather data ‘freely’ available to the NZ public for everyday use. “There is no weather business model like us on earth” says Philip Duncan. “The NZ Government only makes painful obstacles for us, so we rely on offshore providers. Turns out, these providers are far more accurate and have far more localised detail. So you may find our complaining about lack of data here in NZ is now fast fading away as the public clearly do understand what it is we are doing to help them and why we are so much more reliable”.

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WHAT THE OFFICIAL NIELSEN RATINGS SAY…

• Nielson Ratings 2022: Targeting Farm Owners, Farm Workers and Lifestyle Block owners.
• WeatherWatch.co.nz: NZ’s most popular privately owned forecaster.
• WeatherWatch.co.nz: NZ’s second most trusted forecaster (MetService – the official Government forecaster of NZ is Number 1. Government forecaster Niwa doesn’t even feature in the Top 10).
• RuralWeather.co.nz: NZ’s 2nd most popular private forecaster (Behind WeatherWatch.co.nz at No.1)
• Out of *ALL* websites in NZ that the Rural sector trusts: RuralWeather.co.nz News & Weather website is ranked No.6 (ahead of Stuff, Newshub & even Netflix).

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FUTURE CHANGES
We’re still working on NZ’s first ever Weather Alerting App. It’s been delayed for two reasons: 1) Covid being the main reason as it’s created a reduction in resources to make the changes we need. We’re getting there, thanks to our tireless CTO. 2) Secondly, MetService confirmed this past winter that their warnings can be added to WeatherWatch’s new Alerting App (which will allow you to set the criteria for whatever weather forecast alerts you need from WeatherWatch & RuralWeather – plus now also receive push notifications from any MetService warnings when issued). We’re still on track to launch our new App this coming summer – we’re in the process of bug testing now to reduce complaints! – but really hoping to have it launched in the coming months, after a year-long delay due to all the above. It will still have free services, but will now also come with in-app purchases to remove ads, to save more locations and to allow you to set up multiple alerts for various properties.

THANK YOU NEW ZEALAND!
Finally – thank you, to the NZ public and to NZ businesses, for believing in us and holding us accountable. It only makes us better at serving you NZ’s most accurate weather data. Thank you also to the businesses that support us. We’re proud to be NZ owned and operated and backed by IBM and look forward to what 2023 brings!

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NIELSEN RATINGS…

• WeatherWatch.co.nz / RuralWeather.co.nz