NZ Weather Forum

Auckland Airport showing a dewpoint of 22C, makes the 25C feel like a temperature in the thirties

The Wikipedia entry for annual mean is out of date. There is a town in Columbia claiming a considerably higher mean than Mawsynram. Even the Cropp mean of 11500 is not far off and there are locations in NZ likely to have over 13500mm.

Heavy downpour currently in Parnell, central Auckland.

The line of showers is east of here now, I see Greylynn got 13mm.

the shower over Orewa has a big Anvil on it now..can see it from here

nearly 26C here with sunshine and 21.5C DP...
I wonder if the frontal line will move back west again..looks like it might do over the far north...
certainly looks like some beefy showers developing into the Waikato too now

I see the dp at the airport this afternoon got to 23C. Had a heavy mid afternoon shower. Grey Lynn on 36mm for this 2 day event.


With the ball lightning ob yesterday in Otago. Has it been scientifically proven that such a phenomena exists? Or is it an optical illusion a few people get when they get the bright flash of a very close strike. Storm chasers, particularly in the US spend a lot of time around major lightning events and I have never seen a report of ball lightning from a chaser.

Some Chinese researchers made what's considered the first credible observation of it in 2014.

I remember seeing it when I was a young kid..was glowing green...right outside the house... in a severe thunderstorm
but it could have been glowing ozone?

Nice, had an extra 9mm in Howick this afternoon Humidity has been terrible though

Just had 30mm of heavy rain in the last 2 hours and still raining. Add to that the 24.5mm we've had on and off since Tuesday arvo.

Below is an excerpt from a radio interview with MS's Georgina Griffiths today, redefining what we all assumed constituted a thunderstorm...

'What do we really know about lightning?' - RadioLIVE

Some thunderstorms just have heavy rain. They don't have any thunder or lightning associated with them. Others are just windy, heavy rain, some tornadoes and [inaudible] things like that. And yet again, we know other thunderstorms are related with the hail. So, you know, I guess we can't determine which thunderstorms have lots of thunder and lightning and which ones are just rainy ol' thunderstorms.

Nev wrote:Just had 30mm of heavy rain in the last 2 hours and still raining. Add to that the 24.5mm we've had on and off since Tuesday arvo.

You could be in for quite a soaking, looking at the rain radar

Well it appears we may be having a thunderstorm of the thundery kind (lol) - few rumbles to my north and I see that MS has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the East from North Auckland down through to Tauranga and Taupo.

Distant thunder was observed here as well. Went for a short drive and line of cb to N.

I did hear that interview with Georgina on the radio this afternoon.

David wrote:

Nev wrote:Just had 30mm of heavy rain in the last 2 hours and still raining. Add to that the 24.5mm we've had on and off since Tuesday arvo.

You could be in for quite a soaking, looking at the rain radar

Yep, another 24mm since that last post. Pretty insane!

The front has hardly moved last few hrs, nice TCu/ Cb in our eastern sky at times.
photo of the Cb that produced the Thunder over Whangaporoa way

'What do we really know about lightning?' - RadioLIVE

Some thunderstorms just have heavy rain. They don't have any thunder or lightning associated with them. Others are just windy, heavy rain, some tornadoes and [inaudible] things like that. And yet again, we know other thunderstorms are related with the hail. So, you know, I guess we can't determine which thunderstorms have lots of thunder and lightning and which ones are just rainy ol' thunderstorms.

Oh man, how complicated does it need to be for goodness sake!

If its a shower that has Thunder- Thundershower.
If its larger broader area of convection that has Thunder - Thunderstorm
Otherwise its a shower (even though it could be fully formed Cumulonimbus).

Cumulonimbus by definition does not mean it has to have Thunder, Thundershower or Thunderstorm by definition in the name itself means it has Thunder.

Keep it simple stupid.....

This is the Front to the NE of me....... sparking CB's but not lightning active.

The private weather a station at Kawakawa Bay east Auckland has had 74mm since about 5.30pm.

'What do we really know about lightning?' - RadioLIVE

Some thunderstorms just have heavy rain. They don't have any thunder or lightning associated with them.

Well then its not a thunderstorm then

Have to say what a interesting 'General February Weather' thread has been today

I recorded a sharp drop in pressure this afternoon which corresponded to a really nice increase in temperature. No other weather to speak of. No wind change, certainly no rain or anything else. It was a sunny day before and after the drop in pressure.
What could have caused it?

maybe an intense CB was passing over the Alps at the time or similar

re the slow moving rain band...its slowly drifting west currently...
the NW wind is dying away here...
It would not surprise me if the rain line moves enough west to start raining here even....

NZstorm wrote:The private weather a station at Kawakawa Bay east Auckland has had 74mm since about 5.30pm.

I was working out at Tapapakanga Regional Park then. Torrential rain and not pleasant for the crews setting up for Splore! Lots of surface flooding on the roads around there.
We had an interesting time keeping our satellite links operational with the rain fade transmitting through the heavy Cbs parked in the way..

We got an extra 15mm in Howick overnight, keen to hear how much you got Nev!

Kawakawa Bay got 130mm.

No thunderstorms recorded on that front overnight from what I could see of the lightning data.