Least thunder days

[Richard]

Is there any data that indicates which areas of NZ get the least amount of thunderstorms per year,i reckon my area would be a top contender

[NZstorm]

Is there any data that indicates which areas of NZ get the least amount of thunderstorms per year,i reckon my area would be a top contender

It would be North Canterbury. Also Central Otago/Mckenzie.

[spwill]

A guess here, I will say Cromwell.

I'll nominate the area Cromwell,Tarras to Wanaka as having New Zealands most boring climate.

[Nev]

The Cromwell area seem to get a lot of dust-devil/whirlwinds, which are often misreported as tornadoes, except for possibly last Sep 9th, as there were also T-Storms reported in the area at the time (couple of media reports here and here).

I think the interior of the South Island tends to get most of their T-Storms in spring.

[Richard]

Yes ,certainly the case here,in the last 12 months all the T-Storms came in spring from westerly systems.

[melja]

But chch city only gets around 3 storm days I thought, I spend a good 6-7 weeks a year in the twizel/lake benmore area and it gets far more than that from both convection but also a lot of spill over elevated NW storms and since sept I have herd thunder 5-6 times down there so far and im there mainly weekends only.

[spwill]

I'm picking Cromwell because I think Cromwell is too far east for much of the spill over thunder days however Clyde might be a better pick. The afternoon/ evening heat storms ( Spring/Summer) tend to occur east of Alexandra.

[cantygal]

I would go with Clyde. Had a crib there and spent many summers and we had one storm I can recall over a period of 12 or so summers. Awesome place until the Dam was built and the slight breeze as a result has cooled off temps to what they once were

The Cromwell Gorge once had terrifically high temps in the blazing sun and calm conditions.

[Storm Struck]

It depends what kind of a season the plains and high country has and what kind of windflows are more dominant than as to where gets more storms.
There was a period before 2004 that seen Christchurch and the plains get sometimes 6-7 thunder days, sometimes 2-3 days in a row around xmas and new years, a lot of really meaty roll clouds and big buster storms come to mind.
In a more W-SW or SW flow areas south of the city will get more storms as has been the case this year, however sometimes storms skirt around the city inland hugging the foothills with not much out on the coast.

[mikestormchaser]

I havent been a fan of storms in north canterbury, for one theres not much to chase of them esp when you get close to all the hilly terrain and start getting out of the actual plains.
Today i have moved house to lincoln, just south of christchurch so will be updating and watching from here now

[Nev]

I've put together some historical averages of thunder-days per year based on NIWA's records for the central Otago area, along with Chch, Akld and Hokitika for comparative purposes.

However, these figures should be viewed as a very rough guide only, as some sites have very short data-bases and their reliability really depends on the diligence of the observer.

Also note that Clyde recorded 8 thunder-days in Jan 1989 (7 for Alexandra, 4 for Wanaka and 3 for Queenstown), which may tend to slightly skew Clyde's relatively short data-base...

Code: Select all

Thunder-days            Data-base     Amount      Range    Average days 
Site                      years      of years    per year    per year
 
Alexandra               1955-1991       37         0-7         1.6
Lake Pukaki             1971-1984       14         0-4         1.8
Cromwell                1955-1991       37         0-6         2.3
Queenstown              1955-2006       45         4-11        4.8
Clyde, Earnscleugh      1984-1995       12         3-9         5.8
Omarama (Tara Hills)    1955-1985       31         2-15        6.3
Wanaka                  1974-1990       17         4-15        8.0
Christchurcch Aero      1955-1993       39         0-7         3.0
Auckland, Owairaka      1971-1998       16         0-12       10.1
Hokitika Aero           1964-2013       50        11-38       20.9

[melja]

most of the picked places don't look to bad then.
Hard to beat hoki tho

[spwill]

their reliability really depends on the diligence of the observer.

So Auckland Owiraka had a year without thunder? some poor observing that year I would say

[Richard]

Thanks for that info Nev , Alexandra and places nearby do on average get less an here,i estimate we would get around 3-5 days per year

[spwill]

Clyde is 9.4km from Alexandra, will be similar to Alex.
I think the Lake Pukaki number is too low, close to the Alps there.

[NZstorm]

their reliability really depends on the diligence of the observer.

So Auckland Owiraka had a year without thunder? some poor observing that year I would say

Yes, a quiet year for thunder in Auckland would be about 8days. And active year would be 25days.

[NZstorm]

Most of the thunder in Wanaka would be elevated spill over type. Surface based summer storms would be rare there.

[treetop]

Most thunder days ? I would go for Fiordland, Mt Taranaki and the Raukumaras. In good years the Raukumaras would get 20 convective storms through the summer period, maybe 5 to 10 outside that and up to 20 from troughs as they reactivate leaving the North Is.That area would have its bad years like everywhere else but still over 15.

[spwill]

Yes, the west Coast of the South island/ Fiordland has the most thunder days ( include around the Southern Alps in that area). I think the next most thundery area would be near the west coast of the North Island, perhaps Waitomo or Taranaki.
Waiuku, South Auckland would get quite a few and it is away from high ground

It is the areas that catch the Winter storm activity that have the highest number of thunder days

[mikestormchaser]

while west coast and fiordland do get alot of thunderstorms, in my mind, cant forget oamaru and timaru.. they get quite a few also.. not sure why exactly, i think its just the land mass and weather pattern, as the storms form inland from mt peel/ mt somers and drift east towards the coast.
In other situations storms can follow a line through inland mid canterbury through into oxford.

[Nev]

Thought this quote from the West Coast Council - Natural Hazards Review might be of interest…

6.4 Thunderstorms and Lightning Strike

Tomlinson (1976) and Revell (1984) analysed the occurrence of thunderstorms throughout New Zealand. Tomlinson noted that by world standards, the frequency of thunderstorms in New Zealand is low. However, the frequency of thunder days is larger on the West Coast than elsewhere in the country. Most of the region can expect 20 thunder-days/year whereas almost all the remainder of the country has less than 15. The average number of thunder days at Hokitika and Westport is 20.5 and 17.0 respectively: This is more than any of the other 23 stations analysed by Tomlinson (1976). ...

[Nev]

their reliability really depends on the diligence of the observer.

So Auckland Owiraka had a year without thunder? some poor observing that year I would say

Yes, in 1983 apparently, followed by just one in 1984. Bear in mind that this is just one station in a very large region, i.e. a clap of thunder in one part of Akld, may go completely unnoticed in other parts.
We've also had a few good storms the last couple of years, but I seem to recall some users on this forum one year not too long ago complaining about the complete lack of activity in Akld.

Yes, a quiet year for thunder in Auckland would be about 8days. And active year would be 25days.

Do you have any ref for that? All I can find is this quote about Akld's climate from Te Ara (1966)…

Thunder is heard about nine days a year.

[spwill]

Yes, in 1983 apparently, followed by just one in 1984. Bear in mind that this is just one station in a very large region, i.e. a clap of thunder in one part of Akld, may go completely unnoticed other parts.
We've also had a few good storms the last couple of years, but I seem to recall some users on this forum one year not too long ago complaining about the complete lack of activity in Akld.

We have complained about a lack of activity but not non activity .
I don't accept central Auckland had a year with only 1 thunder day or less.

[David]

We have complained about a lack of activity but not non activity .
I don't accept central Auckland had a year with only 1 thunder day or less.

That does sound improbable to me as well. Usually there are always several thunder days between May and August..

[spwill]

Central Auckland having 1 thunder day in two years is obviously nonsense.