By the late 1890s, Wragge's ubiquitous 'Special Australasian Forecasts' for all colonies were appearing in newspapers throughout the colonies, alongside forecasts provided by the other government meteorologists for their own colonies. Readers of the Sydney Morning Herald had the opportunity, for example, on 25 January 1900, of comparing Todd's forecast for South Australia ('Fine throughout, mostly clear, warmer light E (S.E. to N.E.) winds, tending N. smooth seas') with Wragge's forecast for the same region ('Fine generally, with some clouds, and a tendency to showers in the south-east under easterly and S.E. currents; sea moderate: a hot wave will shortly be approaching').[91] Todd recorded the South Australian outcomes systematically and took pleasure, on the eve of his retirement, in reporting the result. He had 'kept a strict record for a period of over 12 years (1891 to 1902) of the local forecasts and those issued by Brisbane'. He set out the results in a table showing forecasts categorized as 'Right' or 'Partially or Wholly Wrong', and concluded that while his had been verified to the extent of 83 per cent, only 62 per cent of Wragge's had been right. 'These figures', Todd said, 'speak for themselves'.[92]

Bureau of Meteorology