Severe northwesterly gales

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sat 21/02/2004 10:20

...haven't arrived yet, well not in Chch, though the wind has freshened in about the last 20 minutes in the central city. Forecasted gusts of up to 140km/ph for inland Canterbury and eastern areas up to Hawkes Bay sound pretty intense. (maybe not so unusual for Wellington) 140km/ph must be getting close to or reaching hurricane force? Have northwesterly gusts reached that strength in Canterbury in recent times? There have been quite a number of northwesterly gales in the area since September last year.

Dean. · Unread post by **Dean.** » Sat 21/02/2004 10:26

An eerie calm here in Ashburton.

Nice day,blue skies and sunshine.Looking angry out west.

Cheers.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sat 21/02/2004 13:41

The wind's now quite strong and gusty at times, but nowhere near 140kph. I notice the cloud towards the alps has a glaciated 'wintry' look about it, indicative of it being a cooler airflow than many other recent norwesters. Maybe that's why temps are in the mid 20s, not higher.

Dean. · Unread post by **Dean.** » Sat 21/02/2004 14:44

Hardly any wind here
Temp has been up towards the mid twenties,but cooled down now and is currently raining though still lots of blue sky around.

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Sat 21/02/2004 15:05

The wind picked up at about 14:15 as the pressure also started climbing from a low of 967mb (according to my station). Temp reached 27.4C at about the same time and is falling now.

Gusts are 40-50 kmh as measured at 4m agl.

Cheers
Steven

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Sat 21/02/2004 15:22

Calm as calm here in Dunedin. 969mb and falling. Short rain falls every half hour or so.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sat 21/02/2004 16:27

Windy here in Southshore, not sure of the speed?

Looking outside there is some small bits of cumulus then I look on the lightning map and I see that a thunderstorm is happening just south of Bank's Peninsula out to sea, going in an west to east fashion, there looks to be only a few strikes on the outer edges of BP itself with the rest out at sea.

Manukau heads obs · Sat 21/02/2004 18:41

real windy in the central nz through to taranaki now
wellington airport gusting to 60 kts
i saw 63 kt average at castelpoint

see
http://www.weather-display.com/windy/surobs.htm

getting stronger here, gusts to 41 knots now...

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sat 21/02/2004 19:16

We only just missed out here in Chch, Cb's moving out to sea:

3:04pm NOAA sat pic

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Sat 21/02/2004 20:27

Yes that's nice Aaron, you expect something like this when the barometer is as low as what it has been today...

...but today has been an amzing day here in ChCh for a day of such very low barometer pressure. The sky at times just blue dome, summery type of conditions. Warm NW winds, even though a bit strong at times.
This morning was pleasant as I looked out through my french doors, not a cloud in the sky. It must be anticyclonic with the H centre just sitting overhead.
I was wrong however as my barometer showed 973 Hpa
I had to go out at 1pm but a checked my borometer further and it had dropped below my minimum mark (date of previous low, I'm not too sure of, will have to check my diaries) to 967 hPa. when i came home around 4pm I had noticed it has dropped fuether to 966hPa. That must be a record for Christchurch ???
Anyway, the winds have eased now and the needle is starting to climb as the very deep low moves away.

On the other end of the scale, when we get the next record breaking intense anticyclone with pressures well into the 1040 touching 1050hPa range, I'm forecasting overcast cold days with presistent drizzle, a real 'anticyclone gloom' situation!

JohnGaul
NZTS[/b]

ricky · Unread post by **ricky** » Sat 21/02/2004 20:28

Where do you find those great noaa sat pics Aaron? still working out where all the good stuff is here

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Sat 21/02/2004 20:35

We should get Gales now till the 26th

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sat 21/02/2004 21:03

Those ones come from:

http://satellite.landcareresearch.co.nz/noaa

Also Steven Graham (forum moderator) has sat pics up at:

http://www.templeton.gen.nz/satellite/index.htm

There are some really big and clear images at:

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/

These pics are huge!! (takes a long time to load if your on a dial up and you look at the 250m resolution images) they show NZ up really well, this provided though the satellite goes over NZ and happens to take a pic at the same time. For certain days you can't find pictures for NZ. I have a part I cut out of an image for a thunderstorm day here in Chch last year in September, go to:

http://www.escootersnz.com/fastpage/ima ... 4th_03.jpg

This is a 250m resolution image but won't take anywhere near as long to load up as if you looked at a complete 250m sat pic.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sat 21/02/2004 21:07

Well the winds got strong and gusty at times around Chch and Banks Peninsula, but not gale. As for that thunderstorm activity you observed on the satellite Aaron - I was travelling out to the peninsula this afternoon and noticed unstable shower cloud well offshore to the southeast. Scattered cloud over the peninsula, and a few spits near Little River about 2.45PM, but nothing that could be thundery in the vicinity. Fine now with just the odd cloud here and there.

jeffsweather · Unread post by **jeffsweather** » Sat 21/02/2004 21:09

NZST said

I had to go out at 1pm but a checked my borometer further and it had dropped below my minimum mark (date of previous low, I'm not too sure of, will have to check my diaries) to 967 hPa. when i came home around 4pm I had noticed it has dropped fuether to 966hPa. That must be a record for Christchurch ???

I had a look in my database for Christchurch Airport obs and the 968Hpa at 1pm is the lowest pressure but my archives only go back 2 or so years.
The pressure change at 1pm is also the greatest at -9.1 Hpa in 3 hours.

Previous low pressure was 19th Sept 2002 at 972.5. Looking at my records, it wasn't a stormy day, a high of 15.2 degrees with northerlies gusting to 52 km/h.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Sat 21/02/2004 21:52

Michael wrote:We should get Gales now till the 26th

....then fine anticyclonic conditions from then on until about June/July.

I hope so. The lower NI has suffered alot with this bout of unfortunate weather. I like adverse weather but with it comes to what happened in the lower NI over the past week, I do feel sorry for the people/animals that suffered

JohnGaul
NZTS

Manukau heads obs · Sun 22/02/2004 13:24

i have been told that Mt Kaukau , above wellington city , had a 10 minute wind speed of 79 knots!

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Severe northwesterly gales

Severe northwesterly gales

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