Wagga Floods

The Weather Channel took its severe weather coverage to a whole new level during the recent floods in Wagga Wagga, NSW. A live link truck and our close relationship with the State Emergency Service meant some new ground was broken by our on location crew and it resulted in comprehensive coverage that took us to the forefront of all media outlets.

Meteorologist Magdalena Roze experienced all the elements as she reported from the flood ravaged town. From the rising flood waters to severe storms which battered Wagga with winds of close to 100km/hr, Mags brought the story of the city’s heartbreak to the rest of the nation. She shares, “Reporting on any type of severe weather is challenging- whilst most film crews try and escape the bad weather, we’re chasing it! But more difficult than getting drenched, is experiencing the tragedy of how people are affecting by flooding first-hand. I feel a real responsibility in sharing these stories with other Australians and being as informative as possible.”

The live link truck allowed Magdalena to show direct impact and devastation the flooding had caused. Homes were evacuated as flood waters rose and emergency volunteers worked hard to reinforce the levee protecting the town as well as sandbagging homes and businesses. TV stations were camped out in Wagga to cover the story but only one reporter was chosen to join the SES as they conducted aerial surveillance of the widespread flooding. Magdalena said, “Getting up in the SES helicopter allowed me to fully grasp how extensive the flooding was across parts of NSW. Rivers and creeks were overflowing, and paddocks and roads inundated as far as the eye could see. It was heartbreaking to see the impact this was having on farming communities.”

Wagga Wagga was just one of the stories in a sea of flood water that has wiped billions of dollars off the grain harvest and left farmers facing even more hardship than the decade of drought that came before it. Make sure you catch the Weather Channel special on the Eastern Flooding as it show cases from this Wednesday 22nd December on Channel 603, the Weather Channel.

Want to work in television?

It’s intern time again!

The Weather Channel Interns have left the nest and started new careers in television. All three successful applicants from the 2010 intake have found employment within Foxtel and XYZ Networks and Barney, Brendon and Nathan continue to thrive and impress.

Now it’s time to find some more keen and enthusiastic candidates to bring their own special brand of magic to XYZ Networks. It’s not just The Weather Channel that could give you your big break - there are ten fantastic opportunities across a wide variety of television careers within XYZ Networks to choose from.

If you have always dreamed of travelling behind the scenes with rock bands, choosing the next big lifestyle TV hit, or maybe even organising the itinerary of a visiting international celebrity, you could kick start your career right now. For information on the internship and how to apply, search for XYZnetworks Careers on Facebook and Like our page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/XYZnetworks/139527332732351

As with the 2010 program, interns will work between one and three days per week at XYZ’s offices in North Ryde. To be eligible for the program, candidates must be a final year university/tertiary education student and enrolled in a course that is relevant to the department they wish to intern in.

Positions are available in many different departments across the company, including Marketing, Production, Digital, Commercial Management and Publicity. The 2011 internship will also include positions in Broadcast Meteorology at The Weather Channel, a first for the XYZ Internship program.

There are 10 positions to be filled and hundreds of applicants will be screened so get your application in now and be on the way to your dream job.

Wedding Weather

It was one of the most eagerly awaited wedding forecasts The Weather Channel has ever seen, November 6th, 2010 was the day and the groom was Weather Channel presenter Kenny Heatley. Long range charts were poured over on a daily basis and Senior Meteorologist Dick Whitaker’s opinion was sought on each change in the predictive model runs. An outdoor wedding at an apple orchard in Southern NSW needed a forecast of sunshine and blue skies, sadly, the two weeks before the wedding pointed to just one thing – rain. The La Nina weather system that had NSW in it’s thrall was behaving just as expected, delivering above average rainfall and cloud cover to much of eastern Australia.

Long term forecasts can change significantly day to day and it’s not until about 4 days before the event that we can speak with real confidence about the forecast. It was about this time it was looking like thunderstorms would be the main feature. Nerves were on edge but the wedding plans went on.

The day dawned with a mix of cloud left over from showers the night before. It was touch and go whether it would be dry for the ceremony. Dark clouds rolled in as the bridal party assembled but the heavy downpours held off. A few spots of rain added to the atmosphere as vows were exchanged and then - a rainbow. Skies stayed clear for the remainder of the evening, it was a fitting day for a weather man’s wedding. All of us here at TWC wish Kenny and Jayne all the best for their future together.

Intern Alert

The Weather Channel has welcomed some enthusiastic new team members. Meet interns Barney Rocks (yes, that’s his real name!), Brendon Frawley and Nathan Hughes. Hand picked from over four hundred applicants, these gentlemen have high aspirations for a career in broadcast television.



Barney is completing a Bachelor of Media with a double major in Journalism and Screen and hails from Lismore on the North Coast. He left his gorgeous wife Chantel behind to come to Sydney to complete his professional placement at The Weather Channel. Barney proved he was worth his weight in gold one busy day when the Weather Channel was on location in Sydney. Pulling a 12 hour shift Barney was runner between the location crew and the studios and managed to cut 3 hours of film down into a score of clips and vision with a massive smile on his face the whole time. Barney is hoping to put this engaging smile to good use in the future when he hosts his own late night variety program.

Brendon Frawley is a huge Bon Jovi fan and printer by trade but keen to shift to a career in the media world so has enroled himself for a Cert 4 in Screen and Media at TAFE. Faced with the daunting task of learning the technical desk Brendon has picked up the tricks of directing very quickly. Switching his first record withing days and entrusted with a LIVE TO AIR report in the first two weeks, Brendon has developed a real interest in the technical aspects of broadcast television and plans to expand his knowledge to producing so he can be a real all rounder in the media world. One of his favourite moments at the channel was being involved in The Weather Channel's Guiness World Record - The Big Report.





Nathan Hughes also joined us as an intern but impressed management so much in the first few days with his can-do attitude and rapid fire editing he was quickly snapped up for a 3 month contract role when a full time production assistant required a stretch of convalescent leave after an accident. Nathan originally started working in IT hence his great computer skills. A degree in Computer Science majoring in Games Technology sounded like fun but working 8 hours a day in front of a computer with no human contact was a little too much for the self-confessed knowledge junkie and he went back to school to learn radio broadcasting and journalism. Nathan is soaking in everything he can and loving communicating and connecting with our nationwide Weather Channel audience.

Interns provide a much needed extra pair of hands in a busy news environment and get some real hands-on experience in their chosen field. It’s a great way to make contacts in the business and more often then not, on completion of their studies, the interns pick up a highly sought after job within the network. This year’s crop of interns have displayed all the enthusiasm and keenness to learn that impresses management in the highly competitive world of television and it’s these attributes that will take them far in the industry.

If you’re interested in becoming an intern in 2011, please visit the website
http://www.xyznetworks.com.au/ where you can register interest from May next year.

What a fantasic surprise from our friends at Thredbo. Dave Grassi or 'Grassi', as he is known to Thredbo locals, is an ice sculpture specialist and he worked all through the night creating this beauty. Dave had to do the bulk of the carving work in the dark so the sculpture could be painted before the sun had a chance to melt the ice. Night skiiers were treated to the sight of Dave hard at work with a miner's headlamp for illumination. Once the sun came up the painting began and riders of the Gunbarrel Express were treated to the majestic sight of The Weather Channel logo in all it's icy glory.

Breaking a World Record

It was an exciting week here at TWC, we were attempting to break a world record for the largest interactive weather report. The previous record held by the BBC, in the UK, who had 261 schools submit the temperature. To break the record we needed over 261 schools to submit a temperature reading from midday in their playground through to The Weather channel and we had to compile the data and broadcast the results. A project 6 months in the making, schools across Australia had been registering for months and vying to have the Weather Channel crew and senior meteorologist Dick Whittaker at their school to help them record the temperature. Wednesday 18th of August was the day marked down for the attempt and Dick Whittaker had flown to Rockhampton to help the students at Stanwell State Public School take the temperature in their playground.






By 11am it was all systems go. Chris Sheedy, the official adjudicator from Guiness World Records had arrived and was overseeing the entire report from go to whoa. The temperatures started coming in thick and fast from around the country. By 2pm it was clear we had enough data from enough schools to have a real shot at the record. But we still needed to get the data into an on-air report and screen it on the channel to win the record for ourselves. Number crunchers worked hard to input all the temperatures into our specially prepared map while Chris Sheedy looked on. The teams worked down to the wire and pulled it all together with minutes to spare. Ken Heatley had the huge job of presenting The Big Report with all 502 temperatures and he got through the lot with flying colours. The report was broadcast and Chris Sheedy proudly announced that The Weather Channel and 502 schools across the nation had trounced the record.





To watch The Big Report go to www.weatherchannel.com.au/bigreport

Snowfalls of the season.

2nd August 2010

What a weekend of weather and what a winner for the snow resorts, It’s been a long time coming but finally, blizzard conditions delivered close to a metre of snow in just a few days for NSW resorts. It was touch and go though, early last week the forecast was shaping up to be widespread heavy rain followed by about ten cm of snow.

This had evening presenter Ken Heatley bemoaning his awful luck as he had organised a week off to go skiing. The forecast rainfall looked like destroying all the man-made cover that has been the only real option this season. Forecasts can change on a daily basis however and the pendulum was swinging back in favour of more snow than rain. Ken was watching the forecasts keenly and by the time he left he was planning his drive through blizzard conditions carefully. Many people were caught unawares as roads and highways to the high country were cut off stranding countless skiers trying to get back home after the weekend. Ken was all smiles through his 8 hour drive/crawl to the slopes and hit the powder early Monday to enjoy the wind blown drifts and back country trails. He sent some great photo's through to the team, check it out. Any of you heading to the slopes in the next few days has picked the week of the season.

The snow was so extensive Magdalena Roze took a camera crew to Oberon in the Central Tablelands of NSW where she reported on the winter wonderland the Central Tablelands had become. It was great to see shots of the snow falling across the pine trees in the region, Mags said it felt like a magical European Christmas.

The snow should stay in tip-top shape as colder temperatures have moved in. More snow is expected through the middle of the week but the wilder winds and heavy rain shouldn’t accompany this cold front however The Weather Channel will still be keeping a close eye on flood potential through eastern Victoria due to saturated catchments.

Nation's coldest morning in 16 years.

21st July

This week has been all about the frost and cold mornings for the inland. No where colder than Charlotte Pass in the NSW Snowy Mountains on Tuesday morning. When the reading of -20C came up in our morning observations, Tom Saunders, our on-shift meteorologist, was at first a bit sceptical. Facts have to be carefully checked before we can go to air with an extreme temperature like this. A comprehensive check of other corresponding data and a confirmation call to a fellow meteorologist at the BOM allowed Tom to announce this was the coldest morning the entire nation had seen for over 16 years and a new July record!

As the week rolls on there are some interesting signs pointing to the development of a rain event for inland QLD and NSW. Meteorologists and presenters are watching this development closely as the predictive models seem to have differing opinions on where and how much rain will fall. It’s something that we are all watching keenly we will have the latest, most up-to-date forecasts for you as developments unfold.

Rain brings a shift in optimism.

16th July 2010
It was carrot cake all round at The Weather Channel as we celebrated Dick Whitaker’s birthday. Dick was heard to say he couldn’t ask for a better birthday present than the lift in rural optimism that is being felt across many areas of Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia after good rains this year. Talking to farmers on a daily basis it’s apparent there has been a real shift in mood across the areas lucky enough to receive the rain. This has also been confirmed by viewer emails and feedback with some great photos showing water moving into some of the Murray wetlands in South Australia after years of drought. Janine sent in some great before and after photo's of the transformation at her place.



Mannum Lagoon in 2007 before the drought





Mannum Lagoon in May 2008 - water lost in just 3 months



First waters making their way into the lagoon Thursday 15th July 2010




If you have photo’s showing the effect the rain after the drought has had in your area then send them in to feedback@weatherchannel.com.au. It’s great to see real results on the ground after tracking the rain totals with our radars. However it’s never all guns firing at once and there is still a lot of rain needed across southwestern WA to keep the wheat crop from failing.

Meanwhile it was shaping up to be a beautiful weekend across the nation. There was enough rain through the week to keep the crops ticking along and plenty of sunshine meant people could head outdoors on Saturday and Sunday. There was also some 30 cm of snow across the ski resorts - enough to send certain Weather Channel staff straight to the back of the cupboard for the ski gear and then off to the slopes – knowing exactly when to go is just one of the benefits of living the weather every day!

The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel launched as a regional weather provider on the AUSTAR Network in January 1999, and expanded its coverage nationally in December 2002 by joining the FOXTEL network.

Today, The Weather Channel is Australia’s premier 24-hour meteorological media outlet. Subscription television viewers are kept informed with up-to-the-minute local, state and national weather reports along with LIVE detailed coverage throughout severe weather events.

The Weather Channel provides viewers with Australia’s a range of weather reports, local weather on demand with Weather Active, but above all, the most up-to-date commentary and analysis from an expert team of Meteorologists and Presenters 24/7. With an all-new studio featuring state-of-the-art virtual set technology and news desk capabilities, The Weather Channel has become a leading voice of meteorological commentary across Australia.

The Weather Channel’s team of experts and presenters, including Richard “Dick” Whitaker, Tom Saunders, Magdalena Roze, Lee Brooks, Josh Holt, Ken Heatley, Reuben Mourad, Rose Kelly, Dave Kirwan and Sally Ayhan provide the latest information and forecasts that allow viewers to save time and help plan activities in advance.

The Weather Channel offers subscribers the weather information they want, when they want it and allows viewers to plan their days and nights in advance to get the most out of their busy lives.

The Weather Channel - Live By It.

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