Abit of a gust caught at Templeton compared to what Jeffs max gust was:
21 kmh at 03:30
I think there's a bad connection in the anemometer cable and sometimes the station reads very high wind speeds. I've filtered out the really high readings (150+ kmh) but it still seems to pick up a false reading of around 80
With that active front in the tasman and strong heating in the region, thunderstorms I think are likely tonight, especially for the Waikato basin and King Country
a 4 for these areas
Towering cumulus at present already want to spray some showers
Yes, a high chance of thunder for Waikato/Auckland tonight with that low coming in. I should have made mention of that in my earlier prediction. It was refering to afternoon convection rather than overnight.
Just checked the latest soundings. Not really any chance of an afternoon thunderstorm over the North Island today or the South Island come to that. But high chance of thunder overnight for the North Island from an approaching thundery trough.
Sure is something quite active showing up on the SI lightning tracker NW of chch... and quite a bit from the low centre showing on the detector back home... here on the Rangitikei just a bit of fair weather looking type cu, 22 degrees, breezy NW now... rained solidly until about midnight last night brilliantly clear morning and no leaks in the tent!
Things have improved (or deteriated depending on what you interpret as in the word improved ) to the west of us from mid-afternoon.Large Cb form to the west with various sferix on the radio. I have increased today's rating to a 3 as a consequence
Tomorrow looks good too this depending on cloud cover.
Aaron, Steve and Jason are quite at the moment so they must be investigating
Noticed strikes on the tracker to the west yesterday at about 2:15pm so headed out almost to Rakaia Gorge. Some "sheet" lightning and heard long rumbles of thunder while driving through heavy rain. Storm was moving east so turned back and stopped south of Glentunnel where I saw a really bright vertical CG which might have hit the mast (?) on the hill to the north. I wasn't recording video at the time, of course
Met up with Aaron and Steve in Glentunnel then we drove through torrential rain following the storm to Darfield but it had died out by then. There was still a lot of nearly continuous sferics but they were from the storm further north. Tracker had it as over Marlborough but it was probably closer than that.
No thunder here yesterday, light rain started around 5pm and continued through the evening. We had a lot of low level stratus so I couldnt see any CBs to the north, but I'm guessing it was well north of here.
Another gloomy day here in ChCh today with the thunder possibility now at zilch ...but I can say that today is the sunniest, wettest, frostiest,driest,warmest, coldest ...the list goes on... day we have had so far this year
Happy New Year
Was a fun day yesterday, I'll try to get a report up today with some pics etc. I didn't take all that much photo's because when we were in the thunderstorm it was just alot of murk and there was nothing to take photo's of except grey looking rain falling.
As John says this low cloud over us now is no good and we can't expect storms. If it were to clear inland we could get something though so something to keep an eye on. I'm a bit confused about metservice's forecast, on their thunderstorm outlook they don't have anything regarding storms for Canterbury (only Nelson area) but they say heavy showers are possible this afternoon for Canterbury. But then in their general forecast they have "Scattered showers, with isolated heavy showers and thunderstorms this afternoon"
So are storms forecast for Canterbury or not?
I guess what I'll say is if it clears inland something could be on the cards, we'll see.
Edited: 12:24pm
Well I've just had a look outside and the clouds are breaking up plus the winds are light so we'll see. Sun also feels warm. Not sure what it's like inland though.
In the last two hours a line of heavy showers with a couple of embedded weak Thunderstorms has passed over Manawatu. The temperature dropped from about 22C to 16 with the passage of the showers.
yes.. got one of those heavy showers up here at the river.. bit of lightning around the hills here yesterday evening then cleared up for most of the night..
I've got a ENE here in Southshore, I read variable at Jeffs and Sotherly at Templeton. There could be a convergence developing out west of me as there is a darkish cloud base. The temp isn't the best but has risen and has gone to 20 and a bit over at Jeffs at certain times today, currently sitting at 17. I'm still uncertain if anything wil happen, maybe some heavy showers as forecast?
