South Island Storms 20/11/19

[Richard]

Fantastic fork lightning hitting the hills around Waipara

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Just come back from Timaru. Pictures later.
Very thick hail showers which covered the roads, stripped trees and loud booming thunder.

[Razor]

is that a Hook????

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[Chris W]

Not much to report from North Canterbury, a few flashes and a burst of very heavy rain.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Just had a heavy shower with just one fork coming down, followed by a long rumble of thunder, which included a "Dump" at the end.

[tornado]

Just had a heavy shower with just one fork coming down, followed by a long rumble of thunder, which included a "Dump" at the end.

lucky you. you finally had thunder. meanwhile here in auckland thunder not looking possible in the future.

[Razor]

Just had a heavy shower with just one fork coming down, followed by a long rumble of thunder, which included a "Dump" at the end.

lucky you. you finally had thunder. meanwhile here in auckland thunder not looking possible in the future.

You had your fair go recently lol, our turn!

[tornado]

lucky you. you finally had thunder. meanwhile here in auckland thunder not looking possible in the future.

You had your fair go recently lol, our turn!

thats true. but lucky you all down there having two thunder days this week. even a tornado snuck in

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Some photos.

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[Richard]

What an amazing chase that was. Got to Waipara and we parked a k up Mt Cass road as we watched 3 bolts hill the mt Cass hills, there there was a strong WSW wind blowing, Zoe tried to get video but that cell died, but to my south I was watching rapidly circuiting cloud about 45deg in the sky so we decided to head below it, headed down SH1 2km past the truck weigh station and hit a very strong east wind and small hail, then ( Tony will know where I'm talking) we headed down Purchas Rd and when we hit Mount Brown rd I saw to my right a huge wedge funnel cloud, I just about wet me pants when i saw that, but by the time i pulled over and Zoe got the photo it had mostly disappeared back up, at that stage I didn't really know how big it was. When we got back to Waikari the fire brigade had the main street closed off, the were a power pole on the road and trees blown over. We called in to see a mate and he said that that was the most amazing wind he can remember, he described it as being dead calm and then suddenly a massive wind that blew doors in, blew his fence over, he reckons it was over in a minute. I then worked out that that funnel was over Waikari and looking at how far away I was from Waikari I think that that wedge would have to have been 1 km wide at least. Surely that would have to up there with as big as they get in this country.

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[Chris W]

Stoked for you Richard, that's a good chase there.

MS just updated to remove the severe risk, which makes sense, and to continue the moderate risk into the evening. There's action to the south, but I'm dubious about its chances of getting to Chch as much more than brief showers.

[snowykiwi]

Hail hitting Rakaia at the moment

[tornado]

What an amazing chase that was. Got to Waipara and we parked a k up Mt Cass road as we watched 3 bolts hill the mt Cass hills, there there was a trong WSW wind blowing, Zoe tried to get video but that cell died, but to my south I was watching rapidly circuiting cloud about 45deg in the sky so we decided to head below it, headed down SH1 2km past the truck weigh station and hit a very strong east wind and small hail, then ( Tony will know where I'm talking) we headed down Purchas Rd and when we hit Mount Brown rd I saw to my right a huge wedge funnel cloud, I just about wet me pants when i saw that, but by the time i pulled over and Zoe got the photo it had mostly disappeared back up, at that stage I didn't really know how big it was. When we got back to Waikari the fire brigade had the main street closed off, the were a power pole on the road and trees blown over. We called in to see a mate and he said that that was the most amazing wind he can remember, he decided it as being dead calm and then suddenly a massive wind that blew doors in, blew his fence over, he reckons it was over in a minute. I then worked out that that funnel was over Waikari and looking at how far away I was from Waikari I think that that wedge would have to have been 2 kms wide at least. Surely that would have to up there with as big as they get in this country.003.JPG

wow good chase there. that must of been a tornado.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Good report there, Richard.
Coming back onto rain here and just heard some distant thunder.
more photos

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[Richard]

Ive loaded the video of the wedge that had started to dissipate
https://youtu.be/gcj-so_KiJ4

[tornado]

since the storm spawned a wedge funnel/tornado and had large hail stones im happy to comfirm it a supercell.

[03Stormchaser]

Strongest storm I'm chased in 15 years of chasing Canterbury storm. Hail 4cm and larger. Car is well dented but I will wear them with pride!

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[Powermad]

Wow. THAT finished my drought and filled my chasing cup!

When the cell was offshore Ashburton, I headed for the beach between Ashburton and Rakaia. As soon as I got there, I noticed the easterly picking up and she was moving inland. It was HUGE already where there was nowhere obvious to point the cam for lightning shots.

It overtook me, so I started back for Rakaia township to get over the river. Started taking video from my phone on its car mount, which came out really well.

Once over the bridge, it was definitely heading for West Melton/Darfield so I headed for Greendale to get over the Selwyn too. Continuous hail marble size and getting bigger. Then had to cross the Waimak, so went up to Sheffield and headed for Oxford.. Cust was getting NAILED with golfballs and all the way to Rangiora continuous thunder and heavy hail. It started dissipating on radar there so I stopped at Rangiora.

SUCH a great day

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[David]

Great photos/videos! Why is it that several posters here were able to recognise yesterday there was a chance for severe hail, but Metservice did not mention this until quite late (when it was already happening in Timaru, wasn't it?)

[mikestormchaser]

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Well unfortunately i missed alot of the action due to work reasons but ill leave it at that. Iv been left feeling very frustrated having missed that big hail although when i did get to leave i headed straight north on johns rd but got caught up in so much traffic, knowing id probably missed the best i decided to not give up and went all way into woodend and beyond, chaser converging with aaron seeing some big CGs in the process, but yet again stuck in a situation where i just wasnt in the right place at the right dam time!! Being a tru storm enthusiast it literally gives me headaches! But i know its not over and i get the feeling as we head into dec its going to be a season to remember! Awesome pics and videos who were in the right place! Seriously gets me fustrated when i honestly want to be there and get those moments. Ill attach a photo which i saw on stormchasers.co.nz page someone sent in. Clearly shows the Supercell structure i think the storm from timaru!

[mikestormchaser]

Great photos/videos! Why is it that several posters here were able to recognise yesterday there was a chance for severe hail, but Metservice did not mention this until quite late (when it was already happening in Timaru, wasn't it?)

I'm not quite sure sometimes on what the severe convection meteorologists for MS look at at times, but for me obviously the upper air at 700 snd 500 were extremely cold. Number 2 there was a distinct curved jet which was very strong over the south island today and 3 there was a lot of shear, converging winds which made it look quite the potent mix. The heating was a good thing aswel

[Thunder]

Impressive storm today, saw some incredible lightning but very hard actually getting it on camera due to all the reasons you can think of. Still had plenty of fun. Great photo's Andrew, that hail is huge! Nice capture there Richard, I nearly considered going over into Waikari but I was a bit spent after all the driving I had done and the storm looked to be weakening around Amberley so didn't go further north, looks like I should have! Oh well.....

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[Richard]

My mistake yesterday was not to get a photo as soon as we saw the funnel, instead I thought we would get closer before getting a shot and by then it had largely shrunk. Is anyone able to get a screen shot of the radar? surely it would have shown up on it.

Here's another photo, still zoomed in which makes them look closer than they are

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[Awhituobs]

there did seem to be a hook on the rain radar in north canterbury Richard
althougth it was not clear if that was just because of the foot hills causing that

[Richard]

there did seem to be a hook on the rain radar in north canterbury Richard
althougth it was not clear if that was just because of the foot hills causing that

Ive email the Met Service to see if they can send me a snap shot, again that's something else I should have done at the time was to check out the radar to see if a hook was showing