New Building For Met. Service

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30558, 29 September 1964, Page 3

New Building For Met. Service

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 28. A four-storey reinforced concrete building for the New Zealand Meteorological Service will be built in Kelburn by Upton and Shearer Construction, Ltd. The contract price of £261,958, was announced jointly today by the Minister of Works (Mr Allen) and the Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McAlpine). It will have 33,210 square feet and will house the central office of the Meteorological Service and the general forecasting office. The top floor will be the beadquarters of the national weather forecasting centre. Mr Allen said meteorology was still actively expanding

and there would be “some exciting innovations” in the next few years. “The premises have therefore been designed for activities which are certain to be required in the future,” he said. The building would provide for the installation of a special electronic computer—“in fact, everything necessary for the up-to-date use of data from the weather satellites Nimbus and Tiros,” Mr Allen said.

Mr McAlpine said the newj building would be a semiautonomous branch of the Civil Aviation Department. “It will be the nerve centre of the entire meteorological analysis and weather forecasting service of the nation," he said. Mr McAlpine said that associated with the meteorological service was the communications unit. “All national weather forecasts will be announced by staff from the new building and regional forecasts will be sent by teletype to the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation,” he said. The building will be specially strengthened to ensure an immovable foundation because of the delicate and intricate instruments. Radar will be installed on the rooftop. The area served by the Kelburn Meteorological Centre lies between the equator.

[Scott Base and the Pitcairn Islands to the east—an area [which comprises one-tenth of I the earth’s surface.