Chance of thunder. 18th March

[jamie]

Forecast looks the best for thunder for all of 2013 so far. Will have to wait for this trough to come in. It does have the odd flick of lightning to it already and seems to be growing.

[Manukau heads obs]

need the low to roll up and over the top of the NI and have the front keep on back building and not just loop as is into the low..which does all seem to be happening..which is good...lots of moisture ahead of it for it to feed off too

[jamie]

there are some ripper thunderstorms in the wanganui area on the near stationary line. A lot of lightning coming from it. One in the hawksbay and another in upper south island.

There is a decent cell west of auckland thats worth keeping an eye on. hopefully some more to move onto the radar soon.

[madaero]

yea that cell to the west looks like it mite just make landfall at or around raglan,then inland to hamilton. Will keep my fingers crossed.

[madaero]

my pick is for a 5 o'clock special here in hams

[GreggWard]

Can hear quite a bit of thunder to the NW of Palmy, at the moment. Getting darker again.

[snowstormwatcher]

Distant thunder here in Nelson, Looks really dark to the Southwest over the ranges.

[jamie]

darn it.... the lightning detector at my place isnt working. I just shifted it and now its only picking up noises from light switches in the house. Anyone got any idea what could be wrong?

[jamie]

darn it.... the lightning detector at my place isnt working. I just shifted it and now its only picking up noises from light switches in the house. Anyone got any idea what could be wrong?

If i unplug it from the computer and plug it back in a pick up 1 IC strike.

I did have to cut the old CAT5 cable to get it out of the other house. I put a new plug on the end of that and put in a joiner in so i could use a new cable i brought as an extension cable. To get this new cable down through the wall i ended up having to cut the plug off the end of that. I just put a new plug on and plugged it into the computer.

I haven't checked the actual lightning detector to see what the connection there is like. Last time i had a similar issue it was a dodgy connection at the computer which Ricky helped to fix. This time i can only think ive wired it up wrong or the connection at the unit is failing.

When using joiners for CAT5 cable, i assume you leave the cables in the same order as all the other ends. Or was i supposed to reverse one?

[Manukau heads obs]

there could be that problem with LAN connections being cross over, yes...

[ricky]

Each end of a cable should be identical.. Does sound like the power pair may not be connecting properly.. Maybe a bad crimp, wires not all the way into the plug or the wrong type of plug for the cable - solid/stranded

[jamie]

got stranded cables. All ends of the cables are identical. Cables all look to be right at the end and were when pushed all the way in. I made sure i crimped them twice as well. I do have two more plugs and i have works crimps here so i could re do both of my plugs.

So just to be 100% sure, a connecter/joiner piece doesn't require crossing over?

[einzack]

a few rumbles around Reefton. then followed some very heavy rain. 15.0mm recorded in last hour with rate up to 70mm/hr and counting. temp also dropped 4°C. thunder was quite distant though.

[ricky]

So just to be 100% sure, a connecter/joiner piece doesn't require crossing over?

No, not required.. all the pairs carry through as is..

[GreggWard]

More loud thunder here now. We've pretty much had thunder rumbling off in the distance, for a lot of this afternoon. There seemed to be a continuous line of showers and thunderstorms that kept developing from southern Taranaki to northern Manawatu, in a NW to SE line, remaining to the north of Palmerston North. Now the shower motion seems to from a more northerly direction, so the showers are now starting to move further south, over Palmerston North.

[jamie]

ah fixed it. i had one wire out on the plug in the roof. must have jumped out of line as i pushed them in. Now i just have to re-align the detector when i see a highly active, discrete cell. I also need to find what the heck is giving me 40+ noises per minute. Maybe a weak fence short.

While i was in the roof i could hear the odd giant drop of rain and i see why now after looking at the radar. We just missed that blob of rain.

[Manukau heads obs]

man...I thought you were going to get that CB...you just missed it...
others are lining up in the winds though

[GreggWard]

Thunder been rumbling out to the NW - W for the last hour, with lots of inter-cloud lightning.

[Nev]

Some minor damage in New Plymouth late yesterday evening being reported as a 'twister'…

'Twister damages two New Plymouth homes' - Stuff