Canterbury storms (high risk) 28/2/14

[mikestormchaser]

I'm wondering whether monday arvo could be storms.. checking some of the models, there looks to be another polar trough coming up, but has it skipping the east coast of the south island and the air looks rather dry, but if that could come onshore a tad more!!

[NZstorm]

I thought there may have been at least some elevated rumbles down there today.

What the Met Service need to do is provide a bit more information in their convective outlooks about why the decide to forecast a certain way. This is standard practice overseas.

Getting these cold troughs in Feb points to something unusual going on in the hemispheric circulations.

[Storm Struck]

Today the thing that ruined chances for the region was the present southerly from 8am onwards, I thought it may have been a good thing as sometimes it comes through early on the passage of the first front before swinging NE.
But you could tell it was a southerly to stay by the low cloud banking inland to the west and on the port hills, cloud tops were also weak but developed high up being pulled by the upper jet.
If a NE kicked in it could have been close to a repeat of Sunday, I think the convergence of NW and southerly along with the topography of the foothills got enough ramping near Oxford for brief weak storms.

[treetop]

I agree NZstorm although not as unusual as the northern hemisphere weather considering the dynamics of the "confused" jetstreams up there at present"

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

What the Met Service need to do is provide a bit more information in their convective outlooks about why the decide to forecast a certain way. This is standard practice overseas.

Getting these cold troughs in Feb points to something unusual going on in the hemispheric circulations.

I was thinking about this too this morning when people asked me at work , "Are we going to get some thunder today?" and my immediate answer was "No"
This was mainly because of the events last Sunday.
Today's scenario was slightly different, hence the NO answer.

[mikestormchaser]

I thought there may have been at least some elevated rumbles down there today.

What the Met Service need to do is provide a bit more information in their convective outlooks about why the decide to forecast a certain way. This is standard practice overseas.

Getting these cold troughs in Feb points to something unusual going on in the hemispheric circulations.

Yeah im not exactly sure why they do this.. today was supposed to be a " high" risk when from this morning onwards it never looked like anything was going to happen, yet on days we have low risks all hell can break loose.
Sometimes gets us weather enthuiests exciting for nothing

[Richard]

Anyone know why the lightning shows up around Oxford on http://wwlln.net/WWLLN_movies/Movie_of_ ... an_BIG.gif but didn't on blitzortung

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Anyone know why the lightning shows up around Oxford on http://wwlln.net/WWLLN_movies/Movie_of_ ... an_BIG.gif but didn't on blitzortung

Nope

[Nev]

Blitzortung only detects CG lightning. The one in Oxford was probably IC or CC lightning.

[Chris Raine]

Told by some locals at Oamaru there was distant rumbles of thunder yesterday at about 3pm

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Blitzortung only detects CG lightning. The one in Oxford was probably IC or CC lightning.

That's not very good
Should indicate all lightning to make it a usefull recording system..

[Tornado Tim]

That's not very good
Should indicate all lightning to make it a usefull recording system..

Do I honestly need to respond to this post....

[Richard]

That's not very good
Should indicate all lightning to make it a usefull recording system..

Do I honestly need to respond to this post....

Its a good point though,to record all the different forms would be handy

[Manukau heads obs]

you need to understand how the blitzortung system works
and how different types of lightning produce different energy types/wave forms, etc
Tim , if you could do a summary maybe?

[Nev]

Good idea Brian. However, I'm not surprised by Tim's response. After the all the previous discussions we've had about the Blitzortung system, not to mention all Tim's hard work in setting it up, and then to suggest that it's 'not very good' and not a 'useful recording system', I find somewhat baffling. Seems the older we get, the worse our memories become, e.g. …

Looks that way but nothing is showing on Blitzortung

Must be only in the cloud as Blitzortung only shows CG strikes as I believe?

Must be only in the cloud as Blitzortung only shows CG strikes as I believe?

Correct, its very similar to the private Metservice Lightning network which only detect CG's.
It may be possible in future to detect IC and CC forms of lightning.

I think the big advantage with Blitzortung is its accuracy in pinpointing thunderstorms. I still regularly use the Bolteks, which do pick up IC's and CC's, alongside the Blitzortung. However, the Bolteks are generally nowhere near as accurate, and even the combined Bolteks will often show multiple placements for the same strikes. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Richard]

I'm not in any way being critical of Tim and the work he's put in, its just i didn't understand what was the difference between the two systems,i do now thanks fella's