Round 2!

CbFan · Unread post by **CbFan** » Tue 17/08/2004 22:29

Lots of winter Cb's at North Cape today, plenty of horizontal / high velocity hail (about 3 - 5mm) coming through under them. Bitterly cold in the wind.

Sub: Less than
Tropical: warm and sunny

SubTropical : definitely NOT warm and sunny

Look forward to some shots of the snow when it coats Mt. Eden

Manukau heads obs · Tue 17/08/2004 22:40

i see wellington airport is reporting small hail and or snow pellets
currently 5oC at wellington aiport, and gusting to 45 knots, windchillis -1.5oC!

Smeagol_ · Unread post by **Smeagol_** » Tue 17/08/2004 22:48

It's stopped snowing here, but I am definately expecting it to pick up again quite heavy round about midnight. Currently 6oC here but is hopefully going to drop soon...

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Tue 17/08/2004 23:08

Hopefully Ben, looking foward to more snow, not that I get much here in Southshore.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Tue 17/08/2004 23:11

i see wellington airport is reporting small hail and or snow pellets
currently 5oC at wellington aiport, and gusting to 45 knots, windchillis -1.5oC!

According to the latest news, Wellington is getting hammered big time, with severe gales, high seas, and even reports of snow in the hill suburbs.
Light rain in Chch as I write, but no increase in wind.

Manukau heads obs · Wed 18/08/2004 06:37

at 5am wellington was getting gusts of 61 knots (12kmh), 46 knots average !
and only 7oC!...man, the windchill would be horrible

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Wed 18/08/2004 07:01

Raining with 7C here in Auckland. Freash SW'ester.

Who says we have a subtropical climate

Subtropical is inside 32deg of equator.

Manukau heads obs · Wed 18/08/2004 07:05

BROTHERS ISL S 70 6.3 2.7 996.1 - 2.1

wow, thats 70 kts average there, and only 6.3oC

temperature slowly climbing here at the moment (its raining ), it was only 6.3 oC when the rain first started...another 1oC colder and we might have been getting sleet!

Manukau heads obs · Wed 18/08/2004 07:10

it was only 4.5oC at Pukekohe at 3am when the rain started , so the top of Pukekohe hill could have had sleet...the top of the Bombay hills quite likely had snow/sleet!

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Wed 18/08/2004 08:02

Well CHCH didnt get alot after all last night, yes it was COLD!!! got down too 5oC but when you add the wind in it was cold! but no snow

and not as much rain as I thought as well!
The road from Springfield to Arthurs Pass is closed today, well as least this morning.

Be good to get some pics on smeagol

Manukau heads obs · Wed 18/08/2004 08:07

reports of snow on the bay of plenty ranges this morning
so much for global warming!

ricky · Unread post by **ricky** » Wed 18/08/2004 08:54

Good timing getting that live wellington weather page up i think.. some scary winds there for sure, thanks for the link Brian
I heard news mention of a lower hutt weather station being out of action from a lightning strike.. metservice one? seems unlikely

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Wed 18/08/2004 09:23

Manukau heads observer wrote:BROTHERS ISL S 70 6.3 2.7 996.1 - 2.1

wow, thats 70 kts average there, and only 6.3oC!

A reminder to everyone that mean speeds of 63 knots or more are hurricane force...

25mm of rain here in Amberley overnight with strong (but not gale) southerlies, now eased to light showers and winds easing.

ScottyD · Unread post by **ScottyD** » Wed 18/08/2004 10:32

Yesterday i posted on the other thread about seing what i thought was sleet. Going by what has been said here in this thread about Auckland weather, it convinces me more that it was sleet. This was about 11am yesterday when a what i thought was a hail squall passed over the wairau park area in the north shore. I was in my car and the hail was not the usual hard hail, but much softer and when it hit the car windscreen, it splattered. I'm more and more convinced that it was sleet rather than hail.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Wed 18/08/2004 10:47

25mm of rain here in Amberley overnight with strong (but not gale) southerlies, now eased to light showers and winds easing.

Woke up this morning to find that the weather wasn't much worse than when I went to bed, only the wind being a little stronger at times. Snow is lying on Port Hills, but obviously it's the existing cover from recent days. So the storm didn't get as far south as originally predicted, not that Chch was supposed to get the really heavy rain and severe gales. Kaikoura got a lashing though I believe.

The air might be getting warmer today over the North Island, but this morning there has apparently been significant snow on the higher country of the BOP and Waikato. The news mentions deep snow on the Mamaku Plateau, though I'm not sure whether the highway through there has been closed, and even on the highway between Tauranga and the Waikato over the Kaimais. The town of Mamaku has apparently lost power, due to high winds and/or heavy snow. A poster on another (non-weather) NZ forum also mentioned snow on hills around Waikino, near Waihi. I looked on an Atlas and the highest hills in that area are just over 500 metres!

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Wed 18/08/2004 10:52

No snow in the high country. No rain. No wind. Some cloud, but the sun breaks through periodically. Mild temperatures.

Yep, one hell of a winter...

ScottyD · Unread post by **ScottyD** » Wed 18/08/2004 11:53

I've just come off the phone to mum and dad in Wellington. Slips, flooding, uprooted trees, blown off roofs. You name it, it's happening. Sister hasn't gone to work, as the trains aren't running, plus there will be no customers today. It took dad over an hour to get home to Porirua from the Hutt due to slips, flooding. Sounds like he's expeiencing Auckland traffic delays on a normal day

The snow that did fall to low levels around Wellington did not fall on the Hills around Porirua. The highest being 470m asl. Seems to be sheltered somehow from the snow. Weather Watcher was saying the snow was down to 250m around the Hutt, only 15-20km away.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Wed 18/08/2004 17:59

Overcast with intermittant light rain in Chch today - the wind no more than fresh. Not quite the southerly gales and snow to near sea-level that was originally forecast. I think the delay in the system moving back onto NZ allowed yesterday in Chch to warm up a bit more (with some brief sunny intervals), so when the moisture arrived the air wasn't so cold. Plus, the precipitation wasn't as heavy as predicted.

Different story in the North Island, where this event will most probaby be remembered as one of the big storms of 2004, along with the February floods and the July eastern BOP floods.

(will there be yet another massive storm somewhee in NZ before the year ends?) BTW it seems the worst snow was in the Rangatikei/Taihape high country, where this snowstorm was probably one of the heaviest for a long time. Actual depths I've heard (not counting drifting) have been up around 40cm.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Wed 18/08/2004 18:20

I'm more and more convinced that it was sleet rather than hail.

Would have been wet hail. Can look a bit like sleet on the windscreen when its half melted(slushy).