Now and Busting: Cold change for NZ

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Sun 24/04/2005 04:10

Just got woken by the biggest thunderclap. Damn near sh*t myself, cats scattered etc.... looked outside and we are WHITE!!!

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sun 24/04/2005 07:02

The 500hpa temp at Invercargill was -35C last night. Thats cold!
Thickness 5230.

Good lightning photos there guys.

tgsnoopy · Unread post by **tgsnoopy** » Sun 24/04/2005 07:42

Ok, I'll be leaving Tauranga for a destination of the Desert Road later this morning. Both myself & my passenger will be armed with cameras. Lets see what we can get of this storm.

Here's a previous attempt

kaimaikid · Unread post by **kaimaikid** » Sun 24/04/2005 07:50

Hopefully it will display some excellent lightning and snow flurries so that one can get good piccies...

Andy · Unread post by **Andy** » Sun 24/04/2005 08:02

Snow right down to the bottom of the valley this morning.

Dam cold temp 0.7 degrees and a 1cm of snow.

It's is solid white above 300m can't see any higher than that at the moment, still plently of cloud around.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sun 24/04/2005 08:05

I'll be leaving Tauranga for a destination of the Desert Road later this morning

Good on you tgsnoopy. Should be some decent snow showers on the Desert Road later in the day. The cold pool moving up the east of the country is as cold as a typical mid winter outbreak, although the bulk of the activity is offshore.

I would like to do a snow chase to the Tongariro region this winter but would like to see a dynamic snow situation before I head south, like a polar low coming in off the Tasman Sea.

Storm Struck · Unread post by **Storm Struck** » Sun 24/04/2005 08:23

Trough numder 2 on its way SW gales here gusting 73kmh and cold on 6.2C.
Heard reports it's snowing in Wanaka,Queenstown and even Dunedin shocking 8am news report they also talked about last nights hail with brocken windows everywhere it also made it's way up towards Wellington as well.

Cheers
Whats next

with this trough this one is the coldest.
JASON

tgsnoopy · Unread post by **tgsnoopy** » Sun 24/04/2005 08:56

NZstorm wrote:Good on you tgsnoopy. Should be some decent snow showers on the Desert Road later in the day. The cold pool moving up the east of the country is as cold as a typical mid winter outbreak, although the bulk of the activity is offshore.

Just for the record, KaimaiKid is my passenger and it is he who got all the pictures of the flooding etc that was in the media down edgecume way last September, he's my usual passenger to these sorts of events.

Unfortunately neither of us took pic's of the Tornado the other day, sorry guys, will try to do better this time... Damn, I think my camera's at work, can't find it at home presently. Another delay.

I'm franticly installing a new windscreen wiper arm (been meaning to do it for months) and Rain X'ing my windscreen etc in preperation.

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sun 24/04/2005 09:12

Around 1-2" of snow on the ground here in Omarama too. No wind.

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Sun 24/04/2005 09:21

Pea sized hail and thunder. I haven't heard thunder inside a cold front before, only preceding it. White above 350-400m but mostly hail down this level and lower

Crazy weather

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Sun 24/04/2005 10:01

Great to see the photo's.
Aaron your Lightning photo is excellent

, is that taken from Video.

Wow, that showery cold pool out East of the SI this morning looks spectacular on the Sat photo.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sun 24/04/2005 10:16

Wow, the interesting weather hits Chch when I'm away. Was there really snow on the Port Hills overnight, or was it just part of the hail coating? A gusty southwesterly on Waiheke; few briefly heavy showers overnight, but sunny this morning. Travelling down to Rotorua tomorrow - shouldn't see snow there as it's sheltered from the southerly and it's still only April. I should be travelling down to Wellington on Wednesday when the next southwesterly change hits, probably not cold enough for more snow on the Desert Road, but who knows.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sun 24/04/2005 10:48

Aaron your Lightning photo is excellent

I second that. I like the way the photo shows up the gust front and higher level lightning. A superb photo.

Storm Struck · Unread post by **Storm Struck** » Sun 24/04/2005 10:52

Wow that cold blast has really hit us now with rain and even sleet down to sea level here.

Will snow be in favour

winds also gale at times got one gust at 82kmh here with a good roar on the trees.
dropped back to 6.5C now outside
cheers
JASON

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sun 24/04/2005 11:00

Were do I start!!

Aaron and I had been talking all week of this expected Saturday chase, earlier models had been all over the place so we were a little unsure about what would actually happen.

Picked Aaron up around 12.30 and headed south, untill Oamaru where we were to base ourselves untill the front arrived, prior to the front the skies were looking very unstable

After Maccas we set ourselves looking south out to sea just behind Oamaru, the strikes started before the front arrived in a well formed cb that was to continue firing our the next couple of hours, we managed to witness a spectacular show before the gust front arrived, although lightning was still going off the gust front blocked the cb from lightning up.
*We record hail here up to 15mm

After this it was a race to try and stay in front of the gust front for as far as we could. By now there were 3 cbs firing up, one over timaru, one over near Waimate and the cb moving up out off the coast, about 20min north we pulled over and more photos were taken, then we had a bit of ground to make up to catch the gust front. We ended up just south west of Timaru at a small town of St Andrews, here we witnessed the inland storm moving up towards us, after 10 or so minutes Aaron thought it was time to head back in the car, as things were getting close!! Then a heavy hail shower moved in that last 15mins or more (When chasing I have no sense of time!)

We headed back to the main road, it was covered in hail, again up to 15mm. Here we had a close call

No lightning had gone off for 10min or so, so thought it was safe to get out of the car, no it wasnt! we had a lightning bolt go off right above us (a cc) the thunder was the loudest I have heard. but the scary thing was I got the largest static electric shock I have ever got, my hair was all charged up!! (and I tell my girl-friend that chasing is safe

)

After Timaru the lightning had died down and we travelled in a mix of hail/heavy rain/sleet all the way back to chch.

After dropping Aaron home I measured the hail sizes around chch and biggest recorded was 20mm over in papanui.
(remember this was about an hour after it had fallen)

What a chase this was 640km, 12 hours, lightning, gust front, hail, gales..... a chasers dream

Im sure Aaron has some awsome footage

Ill add pics soon

p.s Im sure I have left out some thing!

Storm Struck · Unread post by **Storm Struck** » Sun 24/04/2005 11:05

Could I favour SNOW THUNDER there's been a few strikes just around BSP and the TS outlook looks very impressive with gusts reaching possible 90-120kmh

cheers
JASON

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sun 24/04/2005 11:25

Here are some of my pics, i took about 30 of lighting!

These two show the cb off the cost of Oamaru right before the gust front was about to hit!

Both were taken on a sony cyber-shot DSC-P73
f2.8 and 20 seconds

Both photos are un touched

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Sun 24/04/2005 11:29

Foggy Hamilton wrote:Nice pic, you must be keen to get up there!

Ok North Islanders, or whoever is interested....

*Snow is almost certain to dust/fall on Waiouru Sunday night through to Monday morning. As well as Desert Rd, higher Napier-Taupo rd...

*As I said earlier, there is roughly a 40% chance of snow falling in Turangi (yes thats the town sitting by Lake Taupo at 370m asl)
Snow has fallen there before, but rather during mid-winter

*There is a lower chance of snow in Taumarunui on Sunday night only. Temp max on Sunday there: 11c, Monday: 9c and with an early frost, may it keep the snow there? 25th August 2004 snow settled. Not out of the question, the risk is there. Also Ohakune.

Please comment your views.
Following the weather can be addicting when it's this exciting and you're personally bored (it's 2.35am )

Attatched is a GFS input to Snow-forecast.com showing snow forecast, duhh!.
It doesn't run with my forecast
Go to http://www.snow-forecast.com/maps/nznor ... days.shtml for latest updates.

Now im guessing a lesser of a chance for Turangi but increase in chance for Taumarunui

Comments please

Mostly cloudy here atm, 14c, SW to 44km/h

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Sun 24/04/2005 11:37

Great pics Stormchaser, well done

.

I see it's 4.8C at Jeffs place at the moment, mid winter like temp.
Cloudy SW here, 17C.
Hamner web cam this morn.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sun 24/04/2005 11:39

Hi Spwill

That's taken from my Nikon 5700, yes it must be the white balance causing it to do that white/pinky thing. Next time!!

Thanks for the comments guy's!

Cool pics Steve!

Now to show my Dad the vids.....and I'll be back with a few more pics. I guess a bigger report on my site soon?

Metservice say possible storms here this afternoon?? Haven't seen or heard anything yet, lots of rain...strong winds and hail at times though.

Cheers

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sun 24/04/2005 11:40

Heres is a pic of the gust front moving overhead. same specs as above but 10 seconds.

jeffsweather · Unread post by **jeffsweather** » Sun 24/04/2005 11:57

spwill wrote: I see it's 4.8C at Jeffs place at the moment, mid winter like temp.
Cloudy SW here, 17C.
Hamner web cam this morn.

Squally showers with hail here, temp just dipped to 3.5C at 11:40 with the shower that went through, another one just starting now. Can't see any snow on the Port Hils from here but it just may not be thick enough to see from here.

Metservice have a warning out for strengthening winds this afternoon.

Great pics guys. Good to see you were rewarded with plenty of action for your effort yesterday.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sun 24/04/2005 12:11

just heard thunder

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sun 24/04/2005 12:11

The snow has almost stopped falling here, and the temp is hovering around 2.8Â°. Still almost no wind, and blue sky is visible trough the increasing cloud breaks. Much of the snow on the ground has disappeared already too.

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Sun 24/04/2005 12:11

Just heard a rumble of thunder to the north. Small hail and heavy rain/sleet with very strong wind gusts here.