Heavy Rain and Severe NW Gales, Sth Is. and lower Nth Is. - Dec 2-7

[RWood]

Easily dodged a few showers here. Watched cafe customers choosing outside seats beat a hasty retreat. Nonevent so far but CT's suggestion for later sounds ominous.

[Powermad]

Good, that the internet is back on after some optic fibre cables got damaged by the Rangitata floodwaters
Yes talking to Bob last night, he said he heard no thunder but he had reports of people who did.
The thunderstorm we had here was fantastic. Just lying in bed with the curtains drawn and watching all the action from bed.
I've heard of "Arm-chair" chasing but lying in bed and watching a thunderstorm. would you call that chasing??

Absolutely!

[petem8nz]

That photo got around! I put that up, our family camps at the end of Badham road every year. Got the crew out in the nick of time, will be interested to see if out awning is still in good nick!

Screenshot from facebook

Screenshot_20191207-161008_Facebook.jpg

[Razor]

20191208_181330.jpg

Geraldine cooking an attempt at something

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Geraldine cooking an attempt at something

Yes. Lots of interesting clouds. Will post photos later.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Looks like a supercell thunderstorm developing to the NE of here.
Not very many sferics but cloud looks impressive

[Dean.]

Looks good from here

[Razor]

Looks like a supercell thunderstorm developing to the NE of here.
Not very many sferics but cloud looks impressive

Looks interesting alright. Bit late in the day for any heating? It's been volatile looking for a few hours without really coming together

[Orion]

Bit of fizzy-looking cloud to the south or southeast of here at the moment...

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Still looking impressive but fading away, I think.
Gone southerly here now.
Not many sferics.

[Orion]

Southerly here now;
some nasty-looking low dark shreddy cloud to north-east and north, could be a bit turbulent out there.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Geraldine cooking an attempt at something

Yes. Lots of interesting clouds. Will post photos later.

here are some photos

Dec 8th 3.JPG

8 Dec 4th.JPG

8 Dec 2.JPG

8 Dec 1.JPG

[Chris Raine]

Had a thunderstorm through Dunedin mid afternoon

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

We have 2 nice Chinese tourists staying at our place because of the Rangitata River blockage.
Accomodation is full here in Geraldine and they were applying for people to house stranded tourists.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

All over now bar the shouting.
Lower cloud moving in from the south.
They hope to get the Arundel Road (SH72 Scenic highway not State Highway) open tomorrow.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Nice photos.
Some of those shots looked like the lightning observed here in Geraldine whilst lying in bed with the curtains open doing "Lying in Bed " chasing, if there is such a thing

[RWood]

Some of the rain gauges on the west coast council page showing hourly totals over 40mm late morning today

Epic month to date numbers for some. But not picking Cropp to better its monthly record (or at least not the 30 day record) unless this regime lasts at least another 10 days or so.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Would be interesting to find totals up the Rangitata Gorge which caused the flooding downstream?
I remember flooding from up the gorge caused the gorging out at the railway bridge where a train ploughed into the river a few years ago. Very lucky for the driver who survived the event.
The access to the south branch of the river has been closed off for years. Haven't seen water there for years.
Maybe if the access wasn't closed, the flooding wouldn't of been so severe around Rangitata and Rangitata Island, to allow the surplus water flow along the southern branch?

[Chris Raine]

Thunderstorm just off the coast Thornbury now

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Looks like the bridge at Arundel on SH72 might reopen at midday.
There's a long queue of cars from the One way bridge back to Geraldine.

[RWood]

Cropp update before the next round - 1716mm to 19.00 10 December.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

The 2 Rangitata Bridges on SH1 reopened at 6pm today.
Lots of water still around that region, mainly from water flowing along the south branch of the river.
I thought that opening the access to the south branch of the river would allow the flow to ease but apparently the water from that went everywhere, probably because there hasn't been a flow along there for years and with the lack of river flow, has contributed to the flooding in the area.
Feel sorry for the farms and areas on the so called Rangitata Island.
The Rangitata Huts were also cut off from this event.

[Richard]

Would like to know what rainfall totals were recorded at some of the sheep stations up the top end of river

[Razor]

Would like to know what rainfall totals were recorded at some of the sheep stations up the top end of river

Mistake Flat, headwaters of Rangitata up Mesopotamia way got 941mm for the whole event.

[RWood]

Would like to know what rainfall totals were recorded at some of the sheep stations up the top end of river

Mistake Flat, headwaters of Rangitata up Mesopotamia way got 941mm for the whole event.

Webpage seems to say 471mm??