The final onslaught of an icy week

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Fri 27/08/2004 15:05

Getting really black to the south now. Should be some more showers soon with snow possible. 3pm radar should show rain about to hit Chch from the South. Mini hail starting to fall. Let me have it!

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Fri 27/08/2004 15:48

Snow currently falling, none of it's settling though because the ground is to wet. On the sat pic this cloud that's above us now seems to be the last in this trough heading for the east coast of the South Island. I hope some more clouds build up and move over but things don't look good.

Snow's totally stopped now, only the dreaded drizzel. What else does the day have in store now I wounder?

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Fri 27/08/2004 16:07

Snow currently falling, none of it's settling though because the ground is to wet. On the sat pic this cloud that's above us now seems to be the last in this trough heading for the east coast of the South Island. I hope some more clouds build up and move over but things don't look good.

Snow's totally stopped now, only the dreaded drizzel. What else does the day have in store now I wounder?

I don't think it's over yet. This is an unstable showery situation, so there will be sunny breaks between the wintry showers. Just rain and sleet in the central city, but with the odd full sized flake. Heading over the peninsula shortly, should be interesting.
BTW Castlepoint was down to 3.8C at 3PM, so there could easily be snow to quite low levels on the Wairarapa hills.

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Fri 27/08/2004 16:18

Another squally shower of hail then sleet just passed over here. The showers are not lasting long enough to reduce the temperature to the point where it's snowing. Less than two hours to sunset now so the temps are not recovering as quickly ... should be interesting if this continues overnight.

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Fri 27/08/2004 16:28

Cbs to the south of us over the waikato due to heating the cold air inland

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Fri 27/08/2004 16:28

Yes your right Ben. Another very dark area to the south again and it's beggining to rain quite well. Nice big rainbow out there before.

It would be good to here what it's like at the hill top Ben, I'm sure it'll be a great ride over to Akaroa with the snow.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Fri 27/08/2004 19:27

Some showers with bits of sleet between Chch and Akaroa. Level of fresh snow on the peninsula about the same as the Port Hills - about 300 metres, but still heavy existing coating above that level at Hilltop. (I'd say little melting has taken place; still about 30-50cm at summit in sheltered spots) Doesn't seem to be have any extra heavy dumping today - my parents said that there had been showers with hail and sleet all day, but no snow at their place. (50m asl)
TV1 weather mentioned that some heavy snow had fallen above about 300m in central Hawkes Bay this afternoon. Must've been south of Napier as George Merriman's site observation stated no rain had fallen at his place by 6PM.

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Fri 27/08/2004 19:41

Yet again no snow in Amberley

, we have only had 1 day of snow falling out of this prolonged southerly period, compared with Ben's count of 5 for Christchurch. And no days with snow settling. My young boys were quite disappointed! Sleet just doesnt cut it!

We looked back at the records, and it seems that this is the snowiest month in Christchurch since August 1988 when there were also 5 snow days. If you want to find a month with more snow days than that you need to go back to 1939, when there was heavy snow in Christchurch and Dunedin and 10 snow days in the month.

Achten · Unread post by **Achten** » Fri 27/08/2004 20:47

Took this pic a short time before the front arrived. A few light showers and small hail. My guess is that this cb was out to sea.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 27/08/2004 21:05

According to some figures I have, Christchurch averages just 0.4days in the month of August for falling snow. I was a bit suprised at that figure, thought it would be higher. I would say that figure is accurate as it comes from CH airport, which has a 24hr observation program.

So to get 5 days with falling snow, shows what a wintry month it's been.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 28/08/2004 08:27

We had no snow yesterday were I am, North west CHCH, didnt even have any hail!! Just passing showers some very heavy

On the way hame noticed some nice glaciated Cbs towards the south, pity I dont have a digital camer at the moment!!!

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Sat 28/08/2004 12:12

03 Stormchaser wrote:
On the way hame noticed some nice glaciated Cbs towards the south, pity I dont have a digital camer at the moment!!!

Just memorize what you saw

I did.
I can still see them.

JohnGaul
NZTS

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 28/08/2004 13:06

Another a sparkling day in Auckland. August has been a cold month but also drier and sunnier than normal.

Southern and Eastern North island are getting nasty weather today.
Wellington 25kts and 7C. I heard a radio report of Golf ball size hail in Wellington this morning, but such large hail in this situation is very unlikely if not impossible. Its a good situation for lots of small hail though.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sat 28/08/2004 13:12

Continuing showers with hail and sleet around Akaroa. Fresh snow I think is settling lightly above about 300 metres - hard to tell as that's about the level of the existing thick snow cover from the earlier falls this week. Our hail has only been small stuff, but I hear on the news that 'golfball' size hailstones have reported in Wellington this morning!

Looks like the southerly is taking even longer to go away than first thought; not being expected to die out over the east of the North Island until Tuesday.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Sat 28/08/2004 13:46

Still rather showery and cold in Christchurch with 6.3mm here to 1:30pm from 9am this morning.
A clearance, just now, shows snow on the Port Hills around the summit Road level or just below, just like yesterday although a wee bit more from my judgement.
No hail , just the occasional heavy shower with bits of sleet thrown in.
Temperature 5C

I wonder what the weather will be like this time next week

JohnGaul
NZTS

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 28/08/2004 13:53

Interesting Read: Found it on http://www.stuff.co.nz

Golf ball-sized hailstones hit capital
28 August 2004

Hailstones cracked the visor of a motorcyclist in Wellington about 7am today, but police said little damage was being reported as hail showers moved through the area.

Sergeant Andrzej Kowalczyk, of police central communications, said police had received one or two reports from motorcyclists of hailstones the size of golf balls.

The hail had obviously been hurting, he said.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 28/08/2004 13:59

Also too add the 0.4 days of snow in Augest is probably taken at CHCH international Airport quite abit north of the main city.

Snow has fallen in Christchurch on five days so far this month, making it the snowiest month since August 1988. Before that the snowiest month was July 1939, during which snow fell on 10 days.

Also found this on stuff:
Metservice Christchurch spokesman Hayward Osborn

"Late in August is still winter and we can still get snow but very cold southerlies lasting much of two weeks is a bit strange," Osborn said.

Really!! (surprized face on many) And he spent how many years at Uni too come up with this??

Also too note its the 12th anniversary of the huge snow of 1992

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 28/08/2004 14:27

Re average snow days for August in Christchurch area.
Christchurch Airport, Ch City and Wigram average 0.4days. Lincoln 0.5days.

That hail report is exactly how it was read on radio news. Golf ball size hail would do fairly widespread damage. Anyway, hail bigger than pea size would be unlikely. Reason being, you need high convective energy for decent sized hail, which isn't there today. A good situation for lots of small hail though, the type which could leave a coating on the ground.

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Sat 28/08/2004 14:48

This is abit different as the one 12 years ago was more snow than sleet/hail and also this one had a good low associated to the NE of N.Z then bring warmer air down

03 Stormchaser wrote: Also too note its the 12th anniversary of the huge snow of 1992

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Sat 28/08/2004 15:52

03 Stormchaser wrote:Snow has fallen in Christchurch on five days so far this month, making it the snowiest month since August 1988. Before that the snowiest month was July 1939, during which snow fell on 10 days.

Amazing accoustics in this forum, echoes carry on for ages...

ScottyD · Unread post by **ScottyD** » Sat 28/08/2004 17:25

Was talking to dad just before on the phone. He was saying that there had been a few flurries of snow in Upper Hutt and that it had settled on some on the hills. Not sure how much settled, but enough to give a white tinge.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sat 28/08/2004 19:26

Showers with small hail and sleet continuing around Akaroa all day; snow levels unchanged. I took a walk up the road (French Farm Valley) - at the end (about 200m asl) there were a few patches of snow in the nearby grass. (the snow levels you see from a distance tend to show just significant amounts; there are usually smaller patches lower down)

I wasn't living in Chch in August 1988, but I had a look in the September 1988 Met Society newsletter and the written review of the month mentioned only 1 night of snow in the city, not 5 days of snow. Maybe you were including the Port Hills and hill suburbs Tony, as there were a few other cold southerly outbreaks in the month.

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Sat 28/08/2004 23:18

Climate readings from Chch airport show 4 snow days recorded in August 1988 - that would be days of snow falling at the airport. Wx_girl told me 5 days over the phone (or at least I thought she did), so that is our mistake, sorry. We looked at the number of days of snow each month as logged on CLIDB. Records also show no days of snow at the Gardens for that month, which is odd, but since that station is not manned (or womanned) 24 hours a day it would be expected to show fewer snow days than the airport where observations are made every hour of the day. The next biggest was July 1939, with 10 days.

Of course, we are relying on your observation of 5 snow days for this month being recorded at the airport as well - untill it is, we cant confirm the statistic that this was the snowiest month in Chch since 1939.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sun 29/08/2004 12:59

John, you might be able to confirm whether or not Chch had 5 days of snow in August 1988 - your diaries go back that far?

Only occasional showers out on Banks Peninsula, all liquid at low levels today, though some more hail until until about dawn. I wonder now if there's a possibility of afternoon convection in some sheltered northern areas (producing cbs and possibly hail and/or thunder), as the sun is stronger now and could be heating the ground by afternoon in sheltered areas, while the very cold southerly airflow still persists. I recall there was a forecast for isolated thundery showers in the Nelson area for yesterday.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sun 29/08/2004 14:07

I wonder now if there's a possibility of afternoon convection in some sheltered northern areas

Fairly stable now across NZ. Northern half of the North island would have seen afternoon showers today if the air wasn't so dry. Dewpoint in Auckland this afternoon is just 2C, air temp a nippy 12C. Thickness over Auckland today is 5282, compare that to Incervargill 5368. The 850hpa temp over Ak today is -4C, 500hpa-34C. Thats as cold as it gets for northern NZ. But very dry air cuts out the convection chances.