Nate Byrne couldn’t resist taking a little jab at the BoM for its $86m website overhaul.

ABC's Nate Byrne has taken a sly dig at the Bureau of Meteorology's recently revamped website, which was widely panned. Photo: ABC

ABC’s Nate Byrne has taken a sly dig at the Bureau of Meteorology’s recently revamped website, which was widely panned. Photo: ABC

An ABC weather presenter and meteorologist has taken another dig at the Bureau of Meteorology’s new website during a live TV segment on Friday morning. Nate Byrne hasn’t disguised his dislike for the $86 million project, and took a jab at it while being interviewed by primary school children on ABC News Breakfast.

The children were learning about natural disasters and used the opportunity to ask the weather expert some important questions. One student innocently asked where people like him get their information for their weather reports from.

“Mostly from the Bureau of Meteorology, although that’s become a little more difficult recently,” Nate replied while giving the camera a sly look.

After the dig, he actually answered the kid’s question.

“But no, from computer models, that’s where we get all of our information,” he said.

“It’s like a really big, complex maths problem, that we have to ask a super computer to fix every single day, multiple times a day, with lots and lots of different models, so that we know which one is behaving itself and telling us the truth.”

Nate then asked the student where she got her weather information from, and she didn’t have an answer for him.

So he said told that the Bureau of Meteorology website and app “is still usable… and good”, before ending the chat and moving elsewhere.

Nate Byrne describes new BoM website as an ‘absolute nightmare’

Nate has previously described the new website as an

Nate has previously described the new website as an “absolute nightmare”. Photo: ABC

It’s not the first time Nate has taken a dig at the BoM’s new site.

During an appearance on ABC Radio National last month, Nate spoke about how the site is the “most popular government website there is”.

“It’s not very often that people wake up in the morning and go to something.gov.au other than the Bureau of Meteorology, because you need to figure out what it is you’re going to wear,” he said.

“Weather is one of those things that really matters to people in a practical way every single day.”

He said he understood why people were getting “upset” about the update because the way they get the information they want has changed.

“For me, it’s caused me an absolute nightmare,” the meteorologist said. “I’m having trouble finding half of the stuff I usually use to do my job every day.”

Nate admitted the old website “wasn’t good” and that it was “a pain” to use and find information, but explained that once you knew how to use it, “then it all of a sudden felt easy”.

“But they’ve replaced an awful website, with one that’s not servicing their customers in the way that the customers are expecting,” the presenter said.

BoM chief admits the change hasn’t been smooth sailing

The BoM’s acting chief executive, Dr Peter Stone, confessed recently that the update hasn’t been perfect.

“We didn’t make the change lightly and we appreciate that it will take time for some to adjust,” he said.

“I sincerely apologise for the challenges the change has caused.

“It’s clear we need to do more to help people through the change, both by making adjustments to the website and by helping users to understand its new features.”

One of the big concerns was that the changes could endanger those in areas known for extreme and sudden weather changes, and Dr Stone said the “safety of Australians is our primary concern”.

The full cost of the website’s overhaul was approximately $86 million, following years of delays and a decade-long IT overhaul.

Other Aussies agreed with Nate’s sentiments, with one person saying they “hate [the site] beyond words”, with another describing it as a “terrible downgrade”.

“Cannot believe they made it so hard to navigate as well as lacking detail with the radar images,” one person wrote. “Please fix this.”

“I’ve been using three other apps that take the BoM’s info and present it much clearer,” another said. “Then they changed the radar colours, then it flipping hailed when the colours indicated a light shower!!

“If they’re going to change things they need to educate people of the changes ahead of big weather events.”