General March Weather

[spwill]

A funnel cloud was seen over Auckland yesterday, I have been in Nelson over the weekend.
Looks like a big cold system will affect NZ from Thursday.

[Simon Culling]

The forum has been unreachable here in the UK for the last day or so.

Picture attached is of the FC seen near Auckland on Sunday (23rd March) and is from this tweet:

https://twitter.com/NewshubNZ/status/17 ... 7546878377

[Nev]

Yes, forum has been down for a day or two.

Surprised I didn't see that FC yesterday. Did notice quite a few towering Cu around that time though. Few more pics below...

'Watch: Twister? Water spout? Funnel cloud? Weather event seen in Auckland' - Stuff

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zeal ... kland.html

[tornado]

funnel clouds are common in auckland at this time of year. some good heating on sunday.

[Storm Struck]

Nice to see a decent sized funnel there from Auckland.
Has been a generally nice weekend down here even the P51 Mustang did some loops over the city yesterday .

A warm morning this morning for a change with 18C at 6am compared to a usual 6 or 7C.
Currently 20C could get to 25C depending on high cloud.

Both Wednesday and Thursdays changes produce thunder risks for Canterbury, Thursdays probably more of a chance with colder upper air.
Also gale SSW winds.

[mikestormchaser]

A funnel cloud was seen over Auckland yesterday, I have been in Nelson over the weekend.
Looks like a big cold system will affect NZ from Thursday.

Yeah nice cold surge to start the Easter weekend.

[Orion]

Strong southerly gusts coming through now bringing rain rattling on the windows; 13.6°C for now.

[Storm Struck]

The SW is quite strong here gusting up to 70kmh, got very turbulent with gust front cloud.
Also intermixed hail stones and now heavy rain.
Initially it wasn't looking like we would get much but it has developed quickly.

Tomorrow will produce a thunder hail risk on the wind change, will be simular in terms of wind strength if not stronger in any cells that develop.
5-10mm hail as the cold upper air lags further south.

[tich]

The SW is quite strong here gusting up to 70kmh, got very turbulent with gust front cloud.
Also intermixed hail stones and now heavy rain.
Initially it wasn't looking like we would get much but it has developed quickly

No hail where I was (Ilam), but very gusty winds and rain earlier this afternoon.

[Orion]

My Westerfield Spy reports hail there around lunchtime, most unpleasant to be out in.

Currently 10.2°C here.

[mikestormchaser]

SW wind change coming through Canterbury mid afternoon comes with a small thunder/ hail risk. Looks to be a trough later on too that could brush another wave of heavy showers up the coastal Canterbury.

Low being further east of north island now so looking better weather them up their for the holiday goers. Still some rain for eastern NI though

[Orion]

Am travelling south: cold winds & rain Timaru to Waimate.

[mikestormchaser]

If there is going to be storms it will be with the secondary trough later. Will be a coastal thing if it happens but there is a chance

[Razor]

Dull uneventful afternoon here in Lincoln

[Richard]

Was a ok kind of day with a NW wind till 2ish, then another dry SW wind change. Interesting at the moment, the wind is a SW, lower cloud moving from the east and above that cloud moving from the west.

[mikestormchaser]

Trough moving up now. Seems to be heavy showers/ thunderstorms near timaru

[Simon Culling]

According to this tweet from MetService, Christchurch Airport recorded its second coldest March temperature on record (back to 1954) with a low of -0.8°C on Thursday morning (28th March). Was this an isolated frost pocket, or were temperatures as low elsewhere in NZ?

https://twitter.com/MetService/status/1 ... 8774196632

EDIT: As pointed out in a later post, the correct date for this minimum was the morning of Friday 29th March 2024.

[spwill]

According to this tweet from MetService, Christchurch Airport recorded its second coldest March temperature on record (back to 1954) with a low of -0.8°C on Thursday morning (28th March). Was this an isolated frost pocket, or were temperatures as low elsewhere in NZ?

https://twitter.com/MetService/status/1 ... 8774196632

The whole country is noticing an early Autumn this year with a lot of airflow off the Southern Ocean, not much in the way of warm northerlies/humid subtropical flows.

[Nev]

According to this tweet from MetService, Christchurch Airport recorded its second coldest March temperature on record (back to 1954) with a low of -0.8°C on Thursday morning (28th March). Was this an isolated frost pocket, or were temperatures as low elsewhere in NZ?

https://twitter.com/MetService/status/1 ... 8774196632

I think you mean yesterday morning (Friday 29th NZDT). But yes, the airport looks to have been a few degrees colder than Christchurch itself. MS reported a few sub-zero temps in the high country though as per their list below. I see Richard also got down to -0.6C yesterday morning.

MetService coldest temps on March 29
-2.3°C ... Pukaki Aero (Twizel), Mackenzie, Canterbury - 461m asl
-1.9°C ... Mt Cook Aero - 656m asl
-1.0°C ... Manapouri Aero (Te Anau), Southland - 209m asl
-0.8°C ... Christchurch Aero - 37m asl
-0.4°C ... Waiouru Aero, N.I. Central Plateau - 820m asl

And yes, this has been an abnormally cold March for most of NZ.

[Simon Culling]

Thanks, Nev. I keep on getting the dates mixed up by working backwards from the time posted in the UK. I must remember that NZ is 12 hours ahead of GMT. I have added a correction to the original post.

These figures show that despite a generally warming world, we can still see cold weather at times.

[TonyT]

And yes, this has been an abnormally cold March for most of NZ.

A lot of rural Canterbury was around zero yesterday morning.

I wouldn't call this month "abnormally cold", although it's a matter of interpretation how one might use that phrase. But certainly colder than recent March's have been. SSTs around NZ have swung below normal for the first time in a number of years. (and may stay that way for the rest of the year).

cdas-sflux_ssta_swpac_1.png

[David]

6.9C here this morning, my record low for March is 6.3C (2010)

[Nev]

I wouldn't call this month "abnormally cold", although it's a matter of interpretation how one might use that phrase. But certainly colder than recent March's have been. SSTs around NZ have swung below normal for the first time in a number of years. (and may stay that way for the rest of the year).
cdas-sflux_ssta_swpac_1.png

I meant 'abnormally cold' in terms of deviation from normal.
NZ's national average temp is currently running about 0.8C below its 1991-2020 March average and likely to be our coldest March since 2012.

[David]

6.9C here this morning, my record low for March is 6.3C (2010)

Dropped to 6.1 this morning, just in time for a new March record

[spwill]

Niwa temperature map for the last 15days. Some warmer weather on the way to start April.