Big Antarctic Low 16-23rd September 2010

[Manukau heads obs]

batteries at 100% charge...have to turn things on to use the power from the wind generator (de humidifier, pool pump), otherwise that power was being dumped to a dump load resistor (and might as well make the most of that free power)

[Dale]

I bet.. you could have had enough charge to power us last friday, didnt expect a 16 hour outage but then again I also didnt expect it to be such a strong blast. Back in Brisbane we had generators & the like at a moments notice because of the likelyhood of visiting supercells & monster hail.. so over the last couple of years back home, I had become complacent.. there is a dude in pukke along one of my travel routes, he has a wind turbine in his yard, it makes a racket when its really blowing but hes got the right idea!

[Michael]

Im tired of pine needles and obviously the wind/rain,cant get anything done.hopefully a break with the high to the east coming.

[Tornado Tim]

From M/S :

[jamie]

had a gust of 85.3km/h today!!!

[Manukau heads obs]

45 knots, thats high for inland!
I think the isobars were a bit more squashed up over the waikato area today

[David]

I see Cape Turnagain had a 205 kph wind gust early this morning

[Tornado Tim]

My Aunty and Uncle who have a Davis Vp2 in Fielding at the top of a hill have been getting gusts to 140km/hr + over the past week.

Unfortunately the wind had got to the station a little too much and now it has to be sent back to Davis NZ, LOL

[Manukau heads obs]

its so quiet here now...only 10 knots of wind!!

[Dale]

Same! Might be able to sleep a full night for the first time in a week.

[tgsnoopy]

Same! Might be able to sleep a full night for the first time in a week.

Oh I hope so. Those intermittent wind born bangs in the night have been giving this light sleeper a hard time. Sadly it's still very windy here.

[Dale]

*thanks the weather gods for a sound nights sleep..*

You could let a bomb off next to me Snoops & I would normally sleep through it, what kept me awake was the young fella, Aiden.. scrambling into bed with us everytime there was a doozy of a gust.. Friday night really rattled him, definately takes after his mother when it comes to storms

Will have to take him over to aussie & show him what a real storm is..

[tgsnoopy]

Will have to take him over to aussie & show him what a real storm is..

Sounds like Darwin in just a couple of months will be the one. Look forward to seeing you there

[Manukau heads obs]

just caught up with some of the locals at a local gig
reports of a narrow damage path through a block on native trees up near the heads
big trees with the tops ripped off
sounds like a small tornado went through there on a line
also the area WSW of Clarks beach has a line through farmland of damage i,e a damage trail, i.e trees down (big pine trees), so that will be the small tornado that hit the 2 story house at clarks beach and nearby glenbrook beach
so thats 2 of them on the same squall line
I wonder if the M/S have looked at or can look at radar imagery around the time?

[Dale]

Bob & Jean, my grandparents in law @ Clarks Beach have given their account of the storm in the link below..

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10676152

[NZstorm]

Possibly a bow echo event within that squall line. Bow echoes can produce short lived tornadoes. The University of Auckland radar would be the one to look at but it was likely switched off!

[Manukau heads obs]

it certainly was a evil looking squall line as it approached
got real black, lots of lightning
you could see the anvil before it arrived
it also looked to be intensifying as it approached
and we got a very sudden temperature drop afterwards (5C) in about 2 minutes flat!

they could though have been whirlwinds set up by the hilly topography?

[Shepherds Valley WX]

NW Winds gusting 130kms here in Carterton. Neighbours farm shed destroyed, tin flying everywhere has destroyed many of our poplar poles. Our pump shed is destroyed.....

[Manukau heads obs]

amazing how the wairarapa get the big squeeze going when there is a stable high across the upper NI!

[Michael]

Westerly Winds are only fresh in Wanganui today though its totally overcast today.

amazing how the wairarapa get the big squeeze going when there is a stable high across the upper NI!

[kaimaikid]

A tad late....

On Thursday 23rd @ approx 0900 I was travelling back to the Mount from Levin, struck sleet about 5km north of Bulls right through to the Mangawekas from there it turned to snow and was getting the odd snow flake still as far north as about 5km from the Rangipo gate on SH1.

Took photos of the truck up at the summit on the desert - was almost blizzard like up there at the time.

Made my day.

[NZstorm]

The insurance claim for the Southland stadium will come in around $20 million. Add to that sum the lamb loses, the Southland snow will be NZ's costliest snow storm! Although the stadium event was only indirectly a result of the snow fall.

A list of previous weather related claims.
http://www.icnz.org.nz/current/weather/