Polar Blast - June 21-22

[melja]

No snow or rain for that matter in Rangiora just lots of stars, just to warm as well with 3C. I see Cwu were forecasting 7-12cm for Rangiora on there website-very strange indeed.

[joecam]

Lightly snowing at sugarloaf on the port hills. Temp is 1degree as I sit here in my vehicle.

[snowykiwi]

No moisture here at all for Rakaia. I would say the wind turned northwest at some stage during the night as the orange tape on the telephone line has been pushed back against the telephone pole again. I see metservice are saying sleety showers north of Timaru with snow to 100m for today should clear by evening. I've just looked at the rain radar and it still seems to be missing us entirely here. At least it was nice not having to get the ice off the windscreen of the bus this morning.

[Razor]

Been away up north home to a normal garden variety winter SSW set up. Am surprised how many people thought this was some sort of snowy megadump in the offereing, quite a knee jerk reaction from last week I suppose

[Tim S]

Looks to be too warm for sea level snow still here, snow looks to have fallen and settled to around 100 to 150 meters though. Not a snow day unfortunately, so should go to work

[03Stormchaser]

Been away up north home to a normal garden variety winter SSW set up. Am surprised how many people thought this was some sort of snowy megadump in the offereing, quite a knee jerk reaction from last week I suppose

It doesn't help with click bait forecasts out there suggesting 10-15cm in Christchurch!

I wish people would could read the models for what they are. Yes there was a risk, but it was at the lower end if the scale, exactly what MS, WW etc were saying.

[melja]

Well said, people are really getting carried away with the models this winter.

[Razor]

Even metservice was trying to tell me I was coming home to snow...scratching my head to be quite honest

[03Stormchaser]

Yeah they did, and there was been flurries about. The hill suburbs I've heard have seen a little bit this morning.

[Ice Maiden]

Very light hail falling off and on here at approx. 80 ASL, slushy lawn and pavements. Not much moving in the hill suburbs as a bit more on the ground up there, no buses venturing up there yet and its a late start for schools.

[Tim S]

Decent settling occuring at sea level now of the hail/sleet that has fallen, still too warm for snow to fall though. The models were saying 850 temps of -9C, must be warmer than that though as its still 3C!

[NZstorm]

The system on the satellite yesterday looked weak and was being over run by subsidence.

[TonyT]

Interesting present weather code on the METAR out of Chch this morning:

NZCH 211730Z AUTO 22017G29KT 9999 -SHUP FEW015/// SCT024/// BKN040/// 04/01 Q1019 TEMPO 4000 SHRASN

I had to look that one up! Its light showers of unknown precipitation.

[Manukau heads obs]

that's a new one...I don't have that one in my metar decode

[Richard]

(Its light showers of unknown precipitation) i like it

[snowchaser01]

Snow showers down at sea level in chch now!! well very wet snow.. but still snow! A heavy shower incoming too!

[Bradley]

Oh the knives are out on social media this morning, both CWU and Canterbury Weather News readers are not happy with their guru's prediction of 10cm of snow to sea level not coming true!! One even asking them to explain to their disappointed children why their isn't any snow lol

[RichyDunedin]

Got a few cm of a snow here at about 150m asl. All buses and schools are delayed and some main roads closed. Nothing too bad.

[petem8nz]

Oh the knives are out on social media this morning, both CWU and Canterbury Weather News readers are not happy with their guru's prediction of 10cm of snow to sea level not coming true!! One even asking them to explain to their disappointed children why their isn't any snow lol

God, I think people need to get over themselves. It's their own fault for working themselves up. They seem to latch onto the smallest possibility/worst case scenario forecasts and expect it to happen.

On the other hand CWU and that other joker who used to post on this forum as Canterbury Snow Updates also deserve the flack in my opinion though. They hype up these events far too much for Christchurch in the way they word their "forecast". It's all click bait I guess, build up likes and get them to visit the website, website sells advertising etc..

[Razor]

Hmmm, we don't really need to go there do we? I agree there is a wider issue of social media hype, but can we just leave it out there without attacking individuals? Play the ball not the man they say...and don't feed the trolls!

Back on topic, the flow looks to be taking any action out over banks Peninsula at present, but maybe a slight chance of a few wintry showers across the rest of the city. With "unknown precipitation"

[petem8nz]

Hmmm, we don't really need to go there do we? I agree there is a wider issue of social media hype, but can we just leave it out there without attacking individuals? Play the ball not the man they say...and don't feed the trolls!

Back on topic, the flow looks to be taking any action out over banks Peninsula at present, but maybe a slight chance of a few wintry showers across the rest of the city. With "unknown precipitation"

I'm over in Bromley. Pretty heavy rain/light hail mix on and off here quite frequently. I hope it's making it's way into north Canterbury.

[Paul Mallinson]

I mentioned during the previous storm a couple of days ago that snow levels vary with the intensity of the precipitation. The situation like we have over CHCH this morning and this same feature feeding heavy showers over the lower North Island can be tricky. The environmental conditions may suggest generally snow to some level - we thought virtually to sea level this morning for the CHCH area (and there are flurries being reported I see), but, when you get this wind convergence feature (I call them streamers, others on this site call them chain showers) the intensity of the precip can vary a lot.
Firstly, the best meteorological parameter to use to gauge the snow level from is the height of the wet bulb temperature where it crosses the freezing mark (called the WBZ). Snow will penetrate some value below this level. For instance 1mm/hr will allow snow to penetrate about 300m below the WBZ, precip of about 3mm/hr is about 500m (from memory) and 10mm/hr is about 800m. So in these situations, you not only have to get the location of the convergence right, but also the precip rate. Then, on top of that you have to decide how much snow will be produced! So its a very tricky game.
Paul

[tich]

Sleeting in St Albans now.
Edit: virtually snow by now.

[Orion]

The broken low cloud seems to be making its way inland - I think we may lose the sunshine we have at the moment.

[Razor]

sleety snow flurry through the central city. Juuuuuuust enough to make the grass by the Avon briefly go white. Port Hills look magnificent