A Trough from July 19/20th

[Manukau heads obs]

active CB went up the harbour entrance here,....lightning and thunder every minute...could see the anvil crawlers through the rain
my boltec plotted it nicely

[NZstorm]

I could just hear the thunder here. Pic of the cb looking west from Grey Lynn around 5pm. We have had hail here around 4pm.

[NZstorm]

More thunder now, a bit closer this time.

[RODALCO]

Thunder on and off with heavy showers in Titirangi Village, last 5 - 10 minutes. (Firestation to be exact)

[Peter]

Pretty good t-storm just through here - lightning quite close, hail up 10mm, heavy rain - distinctly colder now

[spwill]

My view of the thundery Cb cloud moving in.

[Manukau heads obs]

good photos guys ...so thats what it looked like from the other side, LOL!

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Yes, looking like a slight improve in the weather with just occasional showers for you guys up North but then Tuesday another period of Thundery Rain.

[David]

No thunder heard in the east today.

Good to see we are expected for some thunderstorms this coming week. Westerly gales too.
Something else to keep an eye on is the subtropical low a few of the models are predicting to slide past the North island next Saturday, central pressure <975hpa! Could bring some gales, but will wait and see how the situation progresses.

[jamie]

Had 2 hail showers and one thunderstorm here in the city after 3pm.

[Manukau heads obs]

43 knot squall going through here at the moment with heavy rain

[Nev]

For those that missed this item on TV3, doesn't pay to put too much faith in surge-protectors...

'Man lucky to be alive after lightening strikes home'
Sun, 20 Jul 2008 - 3 News

A south Taranaki man says he feels lucky to be alive after a bolt of lightning struck his house last night. Mike Woodhead was on the computer wearing headphones on when the lightning blew them off and threw him across the room. The bolt stunned him, melted part of his headphones and damaged all of his electrical appliances. His wife, who is 13 weeks pregnant, was sitting on the couch and also was zapped. The Woodhead's where checked out in hospital and declared fine. However, electricity has yet to be restored at their home and they are not sure if any of their electrical appliances still works.

The MetService says there were more than 8,000 lightning strikes in the last 24 hours across the North Island and surrounding seas. Of those, more than 100 landed in Taranaki.

It is not Mike Woodhead's first close-call. He also narrowly escaped from being struck by lightning last year.

Copyright © - TVWorks Limited

Also see video

[Vertigo]

today is fairly quiet, all the good stuff has moved on. still some convection around, but nothing that will produce any heavy rain. thats it for this event.

[tgsnoopy]

Do not rely on surge arrestors with lightning. Note they are called surge arrestors not lightning arrestors.

Surge arrestors are usually just Metal Oxide Varistors (MOV's).

MOV's will slow the slew rate of a surge once it hit's their trigger voltage (Usually about 360 Volts). But it doesn't take much energy to blow them to small peices. In a lightning strike they will slow the fast rise of the strike for a few nanoseconds before they explode amd then it's back to the full strike potential with no protection.

If it's CG and it's close, don't risk it!

Only safe way is a laptop running on batteries, not connected to the mains using WiFi to access the Internet via an Access Point.

[David]

Just to add, last night at 10.50pm here there was a close rumble of thunder followed about 7minutes later by another more distant one. Thought it would be quite wet last night, but from 3pm yesterday there was only another 3.4mm of rainfall. Waikato looks to have got the decent showers overnight.

Looking like a decent chance of some thunder tomorrow.

[David]

Whats with metservices change of heart? Now it seems we're not going to get any thunderstorms, quite the opposite to what was forecast several days back. At least there's a slightly better risk for tomorrow than today.
14mm rain here today, with some heavy rain in the morning. Was expecting it to be very windy also

[Nev]

Thought I'd also add a few excerpts from this rather belated report of an alleged tornado in N Stratford, Taranaki on Saturday evening.

'Wild winter weather' - Stratford Press
23.07.2008 - By Jessica Ranginui

GAILFORCE winds, rumbling thunder claps and hundreds of lightning strikes have filled the skies of Taranaki since Saturday night...

The stormy weather began on Saturday night (July 19) and around 7.50pm a tornado passed through Midhirst leaving a line of havoc in its dust. Midhirst residents John and Raewyn Fredrickson said the damage from the tornado has cost them hundreds. One of chook houses was completely destroyed, we have found small broken bits all over the property, said John. Other animal cages, parts of fences, spouting, veranda poles and part of the shed roof have also been damaged...

The Kent Terrance residents also said their neighbours were affected by the tornado, but were unsure of the extent of the damage. One neighbour had his kids playhouse completely moved up to their backdoor, it was incredible, he said.

Stratford Police Senior Sergeant Shaun Keenan said the local force were kept quite busy during Saturday night with power lines down and fallen trees and stock on the roads...

© APN News & Media Ltd 2008.