Strong W flow (thunder, gales, heavy rain) Aug 25 - Sep 3

[Razor]

Looks to have been a decent snowfall almost down to Lake level at Tekapo too.

[tidd66]

Trying hard to snow here(just out of Gore), ground very wet though. Snow line down to about 250-300m, looks like the weather might clear soon.

[Storm Struck]

It looks like its been a busy morning down south alright, and quite low level snow.
Looking towards Banks Peninnsula there's some CB looking clouds, but it is very W-SW at the moment.
If the change comes through later with activity like is being forecast, then there might be a thunderstorm with it but very coastal.
Currently sunny with 15C and a cool gusty westerly.

[jamie]

Wow 90km/h gust at my parents. Stunning!!!!

Flight down we got an awesome view of the thunderstorms rolling in off the Tasman on Monday and it was a hell of a bumpy ride coming into land at Queenstown. Drove over to Wanaka yesterday with heavy snow at the top of the crown range on the way over. On the way back it was even snowing at the Cardrona Hotel. Only just got to the top of the range and had to put chains on. In the time we put chains on we had at least an inch fall on the car. I have never seen such heavy snow.

It snowed on and off in the town last night and this morn but never settled. The snow line was about 100m above the lake level when we flew out.

Back in Auckland now. Nice 46 hour visit but for $26 return im not complaining.

[Storm Struck]

Nice Jamie its really great down there , ill be there for the airshow in easter next year.
Unstable skies out there now lots of scatterd CU building from south to SW, and theres also been a few strikes plotted along the east coast.
Nice looking CB on the peninnsula too although the radar doesnt pick anything up.

[Janos]

Wow 90km/h gust at my parents. Stunning!!!!

Flight down we got an awesome view of the thunderstorms rolling in off the Tasman on Monday and it was a hell of a bumpy ride coming into land at Queenstown. Drove over to Wanaka yesterday with heavy snow at the top of the crown range on the way over. On the way back it was even snowing at the Cardrona. Only just got to the top of the range and had to put chains on. In the time we put chains on we had at least an inch fall on the car. I have never seen such heavy snow.

It snowed on and off in the town last night and this morn but never settled. The snow line was about 100m above the lake level when we flew out.

Back in Auckland now. Nice 46 hour visit but for $26 return im not complaining.

Thats a great airfare ......its nice to have that country at our back door.

[Tornado Tim]

Canterbury is very dry atm, stations are reporting very low humidities. 25-30%, FWI Indices have gone to Moderate, Rain fall seems very low:
Is it usually like this?

[Storm Struck]

Thats because its W-SW flow at the moment TornadoTim, so i would expect it to be very dry cold air as of current.
Having said that some CB's are precipitating out towards the SE.
The front tonight is the one to watch mainly.

[Tim S]

Just had a shower with a little bit of sleet here in central Dunedin, going by the forecasts thats about as much as I can expect.

[tich]

Unstable looking skies around Chch this afternoon; few spits in central city about 1/4 hour ago, but otherwise sunny and still quite mild here.

[mattyj46]

Just had around 3 close lightning strikes followed by booming thunder and about a minute or torrential hail.

[Storm Struck]

Doesnt surprise me that cold front looks very active with lots of scatterd CB shower clouds, just check out the 5:18pm sattelite from Landcare looks juicy down south.
Thats coming up the island too.
http://satellite.landcareresearch.co.nz ... f02099.jpg

[mikestormchaser]

I had to note to this afternoon, that skies did look very unstable and thundery!! first time i have seen that for the up and coming season and a positive sign to
So i decided to text around some of the storm guys to check radars etc, as i only ad limited view!! oh well
Tomorrow morning/late morning could be a slight chance as it looks on paper but only very low risk.

[melja]

10 deg for chch today i dont think so.

[Storm Struck]

Looks like that front got lazy overnight and decided to skirt past us then bring showers to Kaikoura.
There was a thunderstorm just SE of Banks Peninnsula around midnight last night, purple blotch on the radar so i thought id check the trackers and sure enough.
Ohh well look forward to a sunny day ahead and next 3-4 days, then by next week we are into another NW flow by the looks.

[borris89]

Nice hail shower just passed thru here. There was also one in the early morning that woke me up too i think.

[Manukau heads obs]

very contrasting weather up here with the sheltering of the NI ranges

[Storm Struck]

Sounds like the lower North Island got a nice Hailstorm yesterday, theres a few videos on Weather Watch site of the storm.
I also hear that Mt Te Aroha had snow on it this morning to 800m, and the Kaimai's to 950m.
It seems Canterbury missed the good action being in the wrong place, between when it was more S-SW to when it changed SE overnight towards the eastern North Island.

[tich]

http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/snow-kaimais

Yes, the wintry air reached right up north. Canterbury escaped most of it (bar the cold); just spoke to my father - they got a bit of hail yesterday on outer BP, but no snow settled on the hills.

[Nev]

Came across this rather belated report of a 'tornado' in central Taranaki on the night of Aug 26/27 (same time as the second night of T-storms in Akld and elsewhere around the country).

Sounds plausible but, how much wind would it take to hurl a trampoline "150 metres over two houses"?

Tornado tackles trampoline - Stratford Press
3rd September 2009

IN the early hours of Thursday, August 27 a tornado ripped through properties across the northwest of Stratford, causing panic for residents and significant damage to their homes. The tornado arrived around 12.30am and struck homes on Fabian Street, breaking and scattering branches, tearing at roofing materials and dislodging spouting. According to witnesses, the tornado touched down on the street and promptly launched one family’s trampoline 150 metres over two houses. ...

"It sounded like the tornado was coming down the driveway,"...
(full story...)

According to NIWA's Stratford data, strengthening N'erly winds around midnight tended W'erly over the next few hours. However in the hour to 1am W'erly gusts of 70km/h were recorded, although gusts remained high throughout that day and slightly higher W'erly gusts were recorded at 8am.