Fine weather for Christmas.

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Wed 29/12/2004 16:13

Just got back, Fine and beaut in Rotorua - Whakatane reigon turned to custard now

ricky · Unread post by **ricky** » Wed 29/12/2004 19:26

Currently camping by the Rangatikei river up from Hunterville... Just a few spits of rain now after a day of the high cloud covering everywhere at the moment.. much warmer N wind now but the last two days have been beautifully sunny and calm and damn cold at night!

wonder how much rain over the river catchment this round?

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Wed 29/12/2004 20:07

The rain is probably north of the central plataue now with the N conditions so Hunterville is fairly sheltered from this and probably hot there down at the river

Shepherds Valley WX · Wed 29/12/2004 20:43

Gidday Guys,

Graeme, yeah I have noticed some of the hills browing off early despite the reasonably wet December...sometimes the seed heads on the hay reserved pastures can give a deceptive "brown look" tho... Have held my hay cut off till mid/end January in the hope of getting some prolonged dry weather!!

Good to see that my rainfall readings correlate closely with yours...

Is there much of a difference with regards to weather in the Waimaku/Helensville regions? I have the Topo Map for the area and as far as I can tell there is little in the way of large land features to alter local climates significantly. Am interested in your thoughts!

Brian, have you cut any hay yet?

Currently raining here 5.1mm today with a 15knot NNE, Temp 17.5C, DP 15.C....

GreggWard · Unread post by **GreggWard** » Wed 29/12/2004 21:49

It got to 29.1C here just prior to 2:00pm, although the humidity at the time was at 36%.

The Manawatu is quite sheltered from the N-NE so tends to get warm dry conditions when the weather is coming from this direction.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Wed 29/12/2004 21:53

GreggWard wrote:It got to 29.1C here just prior to 2:00pm, although the humidity at the time was at 36%.

The Manawatu is quite sheltered from the N-NE so tends to get warm dry conditions when the weather is coming from this direction.

The media (aka TVOne) said that today's max was 27 at Darfield. no mention of the Manawatu??

JohnGaul
NZTS

GreggWard · Unread post by **GreggWard** » Wed 29/12/2004 22:03

The 29.1C was unofficially recorded on my Weather Station located in the eastern part of Palmerston North.

The media (aka TV One) showed Palmerston North as officially having a maximum of 26C. This temperature is taken at the airport which is slightly higher in elevation and on the northern outskirts of Palmerston North.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Wed 29/12/2004 22:14

GreggWard wrote:The 29.1C was unofficially recorded on my Weather Station located in the eastern part of Palmerston North.

The media (aka TV One) showed Palmerston North as officially having a maximum of 26C. This temperature is taken at the airport which is lightly higher in elevation and on the northern outskirts of Palmerston North.

TV ONE get there weather from Metservice.

Manukau heads obs · Wed 29/12/2004 22:16

no hay done yet, the local contractor is way behind because of the shower weather in December
things are still quite dry here pasture wise, we need this next lot of rain still

(starting to finally rain better here just now)

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Wed 29/12/2004 22:58

Re: Airport readings and city readings,

Today Dunedin airport (20km SW of the city?) reached 26c
while in the city where TV one get their readings only reached 22c

I think that most of these personal weather stations read the temperatures way to high or the users don't know how to position them properly... Brian's stations I think are pretty accurate and in line with the nearby official stations, the personal one here and in cambridge are totally way out of porportion

Oh yeah, I watched TV3 weather tonight, and it was totally crap!! with poor presenter, no clouds on the fly-bys, graphics take 7 seconds to load and the poor presenter has to make lame jokes. TV3 reported Napier with 27c as the nation's high...

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Wed 29/12/2004 23:04

Good readings When Im looking at here in chch readings the best I find are
Jeffs weather page, (very usefull links page)

Steven page out at templeton
and one at Burwood: http://www.zl3gp.co.nz/wxlive/

GreggWard · Unread post by **GreggWard** » Wed 29/12/2004 23:31

I think that most of these personal weather stations read the temperatures way to high or the users don't know how to position them properly...

Yes I have one of the old WM-918 weather stations, purchased from Dick Smith. Brian may be able to shed some light on how they compare to more expensive(more accurate?) weather stations, as far as temperature recording. I'd be very interested to find out.

Manukau heads obs · Wed 29/12/2004 23:45

its a bit like real estate:
location location location
LOL
its all in the mounting of the temperature sensor
i.e a stevenson screen,with the temp/hum sensor inside that, at 1.8m or so height over a grassy surface area is the best
even the more expensive stations that have built in louvers have trouble when there is not much wind,,..,..davis now have a fan forced model (solar powered fan)...you could add that to any station....i.,e a small dc brushless fan running off a solar panel/battery.....

GreggWard · Unread post by **GreggWard** » Wed 29/12/2004 23:49

Thanks for the info Brian.

Gregg

Manukau heads obs · Thu 30/12/2004 06:55

the enemy is reflected radiated heat....and trapped heat too
i.e just putting a sensor under the eave of the house is not good enough...

you can get instrument shelters (davis sell one)
but plastic white pudding bowls upside down held apart by 3 or 4 rods, with center cut out of the middle ones with the sensor inside in the middle works!

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Thu 30/12/2004 08:32

Weve had our 2 fine days for Xmas

Manukau heads obs · Thu 30/12/2004 08:43

i was hopeing january would see a better weather pattern emerge,,,,,
but the next high for next week is still not a very strong one, but at least it will be warm NW winds, but probably humid though too to boot
and a new trough/front/low to cross central NZ by wedensday

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Thu 30/12/2004 08:57

A rain gauge on the Waiho River (behind Franz Josef Glacier) recorded 367mm for the 24hr period ending to 6pm yesterday!

Thats some rain!!

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Thu 30/12/2004 09:00

The Front is almost through here now, 10mm around here.
Currently 18C with a dewpoint of 17C, thats not very humid. At this time of the year dewpoints above 20C on a good Northerly are not uncommon.

Manukau heads obs · Thu 30/12/2004 09:04

latest sat image and rain radar shows a new surge coming down from the north with heavy rain off the far north west coast, so its by no means over at all me thinks

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Thu 30/12/2004 09:56

I think that most of these personal weather stations read the temperatures way to high or the users don't know how to position them properly...

But that's only likely to be a problem if people rely upon readings from those stations for their livelihood or safety, and how many in that situation would call Uncle Fred, or June's boy, or whomever for such information? Most rely upon the mainstream media for accurate weather reports.

And yet...

BPO's sensors are mounted within fan-aspirated screens. The screens/sensors are "correctly" located and mounted. I check their readings and compare them with glass thermometers regularly (several times per day). They appear to be as accurate as they can be.

Just down the highway from us is AgResearch's Tara Hills Research Station. They have a "professional-grade" weather station.

Yet the "weather service" for the country's largest syndicated radio outfit calls one of the local garages to find out the temperature in Omarama. The garage has an old glass thermometer hanging by the front door. No screen, badly sited...

Neither TV1 or TV3 Weather ever get closer than a vague approximation of reality when it comes to the weather, and we see the MetService routinely revise their inaccurate predictions to more closely fit the weather as it happened (or is happening).

I have no faith in those who describe themselves as "professionals" (or who use pieces of paper to prove it) when it comes to most things, and weather forecasting or reporting is no exception. I believe that in reality we're on our own.

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Thu 30/12/2004 16:33

Mission bay, Auckland at 2pm. A good NZ Xmas card image.