Australia Weather News

The Bureau of Meteorology has defended its new $4 million website, after a flood of complaints about the refreshed look.

The new site went live on Wednesday last week, as wild weather hit various parts of Australia.

The response from the public was swift, harsh and widespread, with social media and radio talkback awash with criticism.

Five days later, the negative feedback has not abated.

Upgrade overdue

Bureau Meteorologist, Michael Logan defended the change, telling ABC Statewide Drive Victoria, the website needed updating.

"The old website served us really well, but it had been well over a decade since there has been any upgrades to it," he said.

"The underlying IT just wasn't as secure, as resilient and as reliable as it needed to be."

Mr Logan said with an IT refresh in the works, they decided to modernise the look of it too.

"We took the opportunity not just to improve the underlying IT, but also to meet modern accessibility standards and expectations."

$4 million price tag

Mr Logan said the new website design cost about $4 million.

It was part of a broader program to transform the BOM's technology to make it more secure and stable.

"That (website) cost ranged over a couple of years as we went through the whole consultation process with the community and adjusted to feedback," Mr Logan said. 

The BOM site is extremely popular, with 2.6 million views on launch day alone.

"When you're getting that many views every day people are [using] it for so many different decisions, so many different usages," he said.

Flurry of feedback on 'major change'

The Bureau has acknowledged the new website has been difficult to navigate.

"It is a rearrangement of where everything is and it is quite a major change," Mr Logan said.

"We are getting a lot of feedback around it. We welcome the feedback."

Mr Logan is hoping that with time, people will get used to it.

"They'll find all the information is still there and they'll get used to finding that information and also the benefits of the new site itself."

But he has not ruled out future changes to the site.

"We'll see how much feedback comes through and that will inform what changes," Mr Logan said.