Manukau heads observer wrote:my lightning counter is up to 4 now...but they are very big flashes
had a few big drops or rain
rain radar shows not so intense of to the west, but real intense activiity moving down the front towards us (narrow line of intenisty), so it should fire up again soon
heading off to bed now...
Surely there will be some lightning over Auckland tonight!
I guess its not all bad news for us down here as morning thunderstorms are forecast but as John says, it's a bit of a hmmmm??? When these fronts come through in the morning the tend to be less energetic? I guess thats a way of putting it. We'll have to see though, my camera will be in hand!
Location: West Coast Road, Manukau Peninsula, North Island
Unread postby Manukau heads obs »
2:30am, got woken up
just whne i went to bed we had a series of some of the closet lightning I have seen!
One strikle it was like daylight, and I heard a crack sound 1 second later, then a boom 1 second after that.
I then saw forks hitting the ground only 1 km away
it was awsome.
then got some heavy rain.
now the barometer uis dropping fast and we have WNW winds gustng to 49 kts and increasing!
the other strange thing is its 21.5oC at 2:30am !
so there must still be a cold front to come...
The thunderstorms out to our west last night were quite severe judging by the high lightning count and radar/satellite. But the forcing that was occuring offshore did not move onshore so the cb's weakened as they made landfall. Pity. Last nights NZWP sounding indicated tops to 12500m.
Brian got the tail end of these storms and we missed them here in Aucland.
I notice Met Service prediction for heavy rain over the lower NI did not come off. Front has remained very weak down that way.
Cold unstable air moving onto the South island today, so Isolated thunderstorms/hail look likley. NZTS members ber alert.
Here in Mt Eden we just had a little distant Thunder and Lightning (Flashes) after midnight and very little rain. Storms passed west and south and started to weaken. Brian is normally more in the firing line for those Tasman Sea Thunderstorms than we are in Central Auckland. I notice more Storms are developing near the far north of Northland.
Location: West Coast Road, Manukau Peninsula, North Island
Unread postby Manukau heads obs »
i was lucky!
it was real goodee!
i was standing in the open doorway when that one went off overhead somewhere.the crackling sound was just a moment after the flashign started, and then the boom was straight after the cracking sounds
the lightning was very strobing, it would last for a few seconds it seemd like, real flashing/strobign effect!!
i wonder if the sever gales they are predicting in eastern areas will give us strong sw winds here too..
i did see reasonanly heacy rain over parts of the manawatu last night on the radar steven...
I got up at around 11.30pm to watch. Initially there was heaps of lightning and distant thunder - cloud cover made it very hard to spot specific lightning instances, and photography impossible. The flashes were strobing and lasted a very long amount of time compared to 'average' lighting I've seen before. I'd guess some of the flashes pulsed over 2-3 seconds at times. We had a couple of close flashes and thunder, some brief heavy rain, wind, and then all the activity dies out quickly. It was like a cold front passing with a pretty large fall in temperature.
A few claps of thunder reported from around the back of Bank's Peninsula around midday from a struggling to develop thunderstorm observed from Christchurch.
Aaron. I suppose you took some photos?????????????
Actually I didn't take any photos today. I saw the Cu and stuff over Bank's Peninsula but it never seemed to get anywhere, thats what it looked like from my location. It darkened up at one point and I was about to go take some pics but then it all drifted westward, so I stay put hoping a thunderstorm would come right over but nothing ever did.
When you say around the back of Bank's Peninsula, where abouts? Akaroa, Le Bons Bay, over where I live (Southshore way?). Normally I would take photos if I saw a pip squeak of a cloud!, but this struggling development didn't get me going. I did though take a pic of some vigary Cu cloud on the way home, I'll put that up later.
K Index 38.0 (highest I've seen it for a long time)
LI was +3.7
Humidity 74%
Tropopause 14,342 meters 40,444 feet
DP 15.8 ºC (though this was after the storm arrived so it could have cooled off a bit)
Thunderstorms in NZ are usually associated with cold upper air which provides the unstable lapse rate. Last nights Thunderstorms developed within a very warm subtropical airmass. The freezing level was at 4400m, tropopause 12500m. Precipatable water was 50mmm, which is about as saturated as the air gets in this part of the world. There would have been 1000's of lightning strikes off the coast. See Met Service lightning strike.
3am temperature had risen to 22C with dewpoint 21C. Surface winds ahead of the thunderstorm line were NE, backing NW behind. The inflow
of high dewpoint air was behind the cb formation.
I'm not quite sure why the cb's weakened as they made landfall. Something to do with the wind fields I think rather than temperature.
Waiting for the wind to pick up here,power poles down in Oamaru,trees down in Dunedin.
Come on weather,throw something interesting at us,not a breath of wind here.We must have the most stable weather in the country lately.
I believe the upper air soundings are commenced at 10pm and are completed by 11pm. It use to be 11pm release time. Maybe NZDT has something to do with it? It is called the 1200Z Midnight sounding.
A few claps of thunder reported from around the back of Bank's Peninsula around midday from a struggling to develop thunderstorm observed from Christchurch.
I spoke to my parents about 1/2 hour ago, and they said they heard thunder to the west about midday. So it must've been between Akaroa area and Lyttleton - I'd guess about Mt Herbert. They also said that the wind hadn't picked up there yet, and that they hadn't had strong winds today , even while Chch has had some.
Funny day here in the city - the clouds looked menacing with showers (often hail-like in appearance) plainly visible from many of them, but looking as if the precipitation wasn't reaching the ground.
Lets hope there is a new site and people for the Whenuapai soundings found when the airbase closes.
I guess it could easily be done over at Auckland airport, unless Whenuapai becomes a civil airport. Graeme, I guess Waimakau is close enough to Whenuapai for you to not be keen on the idea of an International aiport being built there.
Deano wrote:Waiting for the wind to pick up here,power poles down in Oamaru,trees down in Dunedin.
Come on weather,throw something interesting at us,not a breath of wind here.We must have the most stable weather in the country lately.
I have just been outside here to get my 11pm reading.
Fine and calm with any hint of a breeze to come from the NE
Barometer rising as well
Location: Rainy Manurewa, Auckland - "City of Gales"
Unread postby Michael »
Well you might get that from Ivy when it sits over Raoul Island with a high to the south squeezing the easterly gradient over canterbury
NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:
Deano wrote:Waiting for the wind to pick up here,power poles down in Oamaru,trees down in Dunedin.
Come on weather,throw something interesting at us,not a breath of wind here.We must have the most stable weather in the country lately.
I have just been outside here to get my 11pm reading.
Fine and calm with any hint of a breeze to come from the NE
Barometer rising as well
But those severe gales seem to have stayed down south. Nothing of note in Chch, and though there was a brief news item on a small scrub fire in Akaroa (probably aided by strong, but not neccessarily gale winds), there have been no news reports of severe winds on the peninsula. Fine and sunny this morning, with a moderate wind, but quite chilly.
Funny day here in the city - the clouds looked menacing with showers (often hail-like in appearance) plainly visible from many of them, but looking as if the precipitation wasn't reaching the ground.
Here's something similar that I saw on Tuesday, and this was the pic I was meant to put up last night! It's here:
The convection is deep enough to produce a weak shower. The visible precipitation is snow which is melting at a well defined level, and will be reaching the ground as light rain.
This photo is a sign of how cold the upper atmosphere has been over the South Island last couple of days. The Invercargill soundings indicated the freezing level around the 1000m level down there. But in your photo, the fzl looks to have been lower.
This photo is a seen more typical of July or August rather than Feb.
, even while Chch has had some.
- the clouds looked menacing with showers (often hail-like in appearance) plainly visible from many of them, but looking as if the precipitation wasn't reaching the ground. 
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