That was the view of Vincent Community Board members, who welcomed news a ''high-quality'' weather station was proposed for an Orchard Dr site.
Planned by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), the station would need a site of about 10sq m and would consist of a 10m-high mast, an anemometer for measuring wind speed and a wind vane for recording wind direction.
Niwa Alexandra environmental monitoring technician Neil Blair said the new Alexandra weather station would be ''up to international standard'' to meet World Meteorological Organisation standards and the data it produced would be used nationally and internationally.
There was a MetService weather station at Alexandra Airport and he believed its recordings were used as the temperatures given in daily television weather reports.
Mr Blair said Niwa's weather station would be located in Alexandra because of its unique climate and because so much primary industry was based in the region.
It would expand on long-term climate recordings and be a ''benchmark'' for calibrating other stations.
The information it collected would be available to the public, he said. Niwa would pay for the equipment, which was expected to cost about $12,000 to $15,000.
Board member Stu Millis said having the weather station in Alexandra rather than at the airport would result in ''more accurate weather temperatures'' as the airport site was too exposed. He thought summer temperatures in town were higher than at the airport.
Fellow board member Barry Hambleton agreed and said he would wait with bated breath to see if that would be the case. The board should support the project, he said.
Mr Blair said the station should be an asset for the town. The Orchard Dr site was on a high piece of vacant land and should be well away from any potential flooding.
Niwa would negotiate a 49-year easement with Land Information New Zealand over the land.
