First Major Winter Storm of 2019

[talbotmj15]

Still snowing in Waddington. Approx 7-8cm fallen.

[einzack]

Very wet in town, but seen pics of snow in Oxford and Glentunnel.

[Richard]

Very wet in town, but seen pics of snow in Oxford and Glentunnel.

Interesting, Oxford is about the same height above sea level as here yet its raining

[snowstormwatcher]

Rain Clearing from the south here now. Good amount of rain though with 54mm total.

[Razor]

Only 25mm here so far. But Akaroa reporting a staggering 120mm!

[Bradley]

103mm in West Melton for the event, hard to believe I know with the airport only on 55mm but the rain gauge doesn’t lie!!

[Razor]

So we can expect in excess of 1metre of snow in parts of the high country, I'm extrapolating? Hello Winter!

[Orion]

About 5°C here, poured with rain at times through the night, sounded like a skiff of graupel half an hour ago; overcast looks very thick;

Methven webcam shows some snow settled in the town https://methvenpubs.co.nz/webcam/

[carrot]

60+cm reported at mt Hutt at 8am
Nice seeing some lightning in the city last night

[Chris W]

Here in the central city we got a lot more rain than the airport last night, sat on the edge of that convergence that stretched from Amberley for a good while which gave us those few flashes of lightning. The rain at midnight was the heaviest I’ve seen in a long time, and it hasn’t exactly been light this morning!

Seems the air aloft has been a little warmer than modelled, or the really cold air is taking a bit longer to arrive but it’s been a wild night anyway.

[Dean.]

Plenty of snow on the upper plains Mid Canterbury...this photo taken inland from Methven this morning.
Freezing levels lifting now with sleet and rain falling.

[TonyT]

I thought I had heard hail during the night but wasn't sure as the rain was heavy at times. Have now seen video of heavy hail at Leithfield Beach during the night which banked up and caused some surface flooding.

[Thunder081]

The southerly is approaching Wellington

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[Cyclone Tracy]

Circulation and lowest air pressure was in Pegasus Bay at 3am around 979 to 980 hPa. Land obs were around 981 and 982 at this time.

On a side note and for the record, from 29 May UKMet was the only model that had the low centred off Christchurch. All other global models had the low north towards Cook Strait by 200 km. GFS made the late switch on the 31 May runs, others then followed. UKMet drops their pants again

[Storm Struck]

It sure has been chucking it down all night, even the swails out the back are filling up a rarity to see.
Still some sleet intermixed here so the snow level still sitting around 200-300m, pretty sure i heard a thunder rumble before too west chch.
Ive seen photos of hail drifts like snow in kaiapoi on facebook this morning, from that storm over north canterbury.

[Thunder081]

Circulation and lowest air pressure was in Pegasus Bay at 3am around 979 to 980 hPa. Land obs were around 981 and 982 at this time.

Here's the low forming on radar! it's a cool looking one.

[NZstorm]

Re last nights storm over Pegasus Bay.

Looking at the GFS surface wind chart for 12Z, a lot of convergence in that spot! Centre of low.

[Razor]

Sure is fortunate the Christchurch Marathon was not today

[Chris W]

It sure is! Straight southerlies for the last hour or two and the heavy rain continues. We’re probably looking at 70-80mm from the event by the end of today, including yesterday, with at least 50mm recorded at the airport this morning and as I say I don’t think they saw the heaviest falls.

[carrot]

Very squally with streams in the city running high.

[Razor]

Just ventured out. Seriously bad surface flooding in parts of Chch, some of the worst I've seen

[Bradley]

Just ventured out. Seriously bad surface flooding in parts of Chch, some of the worst I've seen

We are very lucky we have had a dry and warm May and the ground wasn’t sodden otherwise there could have been houses flooded in places like Opawa...

[Chris W]

The good news is the back edge of the main rain band is approaching, not so good that high tide is 3pm but it should ease after that. Not too far from March 2014 for duration and intensity.

[Bradley]

Just took a drive up to Springfield with the family, road closed to Porters Pass closed just outside of Springfield and only a few cms on the ground, at least twice as much snow in Sheffield which is strange as it’s 100m lower then Springfield, must have been caught in a chain shower earlier in the morning...only sleeting at 450m asl as well, that might be it for snow for the plains for this system now

[Thunder081]

Southerly getting closer to Wellington it's looking dark in Cook Strait.