General May Weather

[NZstorm]

Taranaki had 3 nights in a row with storms in the area. Looking like they will take another electrical hit Saturday morning.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Time-lapse from electrical storm over Taranaki last night (via Primo Wireless). Rather vigorous!
(Warning - has loud music!)



They also have a cool selection of webcams around the Taranaki region, including a number along the coast.
https://primowireless.co.nz/info/primo-webcams

....to quote from the 1980's English comedy show "Not the 9'clock News" .....
..... "Nice video, shame about the song?"

[Orion]

What's all that red/purple on the rain radar, near the Rangitata River, about?

[Richard]

What's all that red/purple on the rain radar, near the Rangitata River, about?

Looks heavy rain, interesting

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

With all this clagg, finally coming onto rain here after a week of the forecasts, forecasting rain, but nothing much happening.
The radar does look interesting just to the north of here though?

[talbotmj15]

Dont think it was meant to be that heavy tonight if it is heavy rain? wonder what the obs done there say. I hear its nearly snowing in tekapo and is snowing at 800msl quite heavy around the Hakataramea pass area. 2 inches at the top and building quite quickly.

[Orion]

Raining here, can hear it on roof, sounds heavyish.

[Razor]

Hmmmm could be a nice wee storm up inland. Any Methven spies?

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Raining here, can hear it on roof, sounds heavyish.

Same here. 16mm to 10pm from 8pm.

[Orion]

Hmmmm could be a nice wee storm up inland. Any Methven spies?

My Methven Spy reports "just rain".

[talbotmj15]

Dramatic wind pickup here in last 5mins around sheffield. Rain not far away i guess.

[BeaconHill]

And here I was trying to be clever and use the “embed a YouTube video thingy” in the editor.

Here is the link again to try.

https://youtu.be/NdkK28qYAc8

[SnwAddct]

Distant rumbles of thunder in Swanson at the moment, radar showing bit of action about to move through quickly..

[NZstorm]

Flashes about every 10 seconds to the west. Storm on Auckland's west coast.

[NZstorm]

I think its mostly IC lightning. Thunder over the top of us now with precip arriving.

[Cyclone Tracy]

Decent thunder here

[spwill]

Showers becoming isolatedhere by early afternoon until Saturday when there is the chance for more thunder, typical May weather here now.
The Mnts around Wanaka/ Qtwn will receive some snow over the next 10days.

[mattyj46]

Nice coating of snow on the Takatimu Mountain Range down to about 800m

[Richard]

Showers becoming isolatedhere by early afternoon until Saturday when there is the chance for more thunder, typical May weather here now.
The Mnts around Wanaka/ Qtwn will receive some snow over the next 10days.

The eastern ski fields like Mt Lyford are going to miss out though, Mt Hutt should get good spill over falls

[melja]

Still 3 weeks before the first opening tho and a lot will happen in that time. Most eastern fields open July anyway.

Sent from my Lenovo K50a40 using Tapatalk

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Another 5.2mm overnight giving us 21.2mm from last night's rain.

[spwill]

Yes, the Otago Ski fields are best placed for snow, Treble Cone will be in the higher precipitation zone.

[Cyclone Tracy]

short sharp showers over the last 24 hours have produced about 3mm here but great to see some flashes and hear the rumbles this morning

Not looking too far ahead, all models are locking onto the high pressure system being snookered by the jets this coming Monday. Looks like its setting up a southern hemisphere version of the Omega block at 500 hPa. The timing and length of the block is crucial for knowing what impact the weakened polar vortex pulses will have on NZ, especially the south island.... I think we'll know that answer in the next 48 hours. If the block is weakened, the powerful pulses will go east of NZ, if the block is sustained, at a minimum it could be a brutal May cold snap for the SI as next week goes on.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

And now mainstream media have run with the "Stormageddon" headline .... really poor journalism yet again

http://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/ ... ocid=ientp

The problem with this is that its not a really major storm. Significant yes, worthy of some media coverage beforehand yes, may produce some flooding in few spots. But if you are going to use a stupidly-over-the-top word to describe it, then what do you do when a stupidly-over-the-top storm comes along? Just tell everyone to go back to bed? I find it sad to see weather events weaponised in this way, and the language over-inflated for effect. Weather is serious business, people can loose lives and livelihoods. It needs to be reported carefully, not used as a vehicle for a reporter's exaggerated sense of prose.

Although nothing to do with this topic (maybe moderators might want a new topic for this), but now there has been a "Meteotsurnami" event off the NE coast of the USA to add to these rather strange names the media invent for weather phenonomen

[Nev]

...now there has been a "Meteotsurnami" event off the NE coast of the USA to add to these rather strange names the media invent for weather phenonomen

Meteotsunami (or meteorological tsunami) is a proper meteorological/oceanic term though…
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/meteotsunami.html