meg wrote:
I agree, particularly as the DFES website melts down every time there is a decent sized fire
Technically speaking, they have the same problems that Clickfrenzy site had. Their site is database driven and they seem to self-host over their corporate Internet link without using distributed caching to help with load.
They desperately need their alerts and warnings pages plotted on a map. Where the heck is "the Midwest Gascoyne" region?? The site and warnings pages are rarely updated during events - usually only before and after.
A reflection of the ongoing tiff between DEC and DFES is that the DFES and DEC sites
only contain information about fires they're responsible for. (If I see a great wall of smoke I don't give two sticks whether it's a DEC or DFES managed fire!!). From the DEC website, "DEC issues alerts for fires on DEC managed land or where DEC is the agency managing the incident"
Although DFES do have a Twitter feed which scrapes from the alerts and warnings RSS feed but it's all "be prepared", "BOM has issued a weather advisory" stuff. It's very hard to filter by area of interest as they sometimes use BOM regions, occasionally DFES regions, sometimes local government areas...