NZ Weather Forum

If people are upset over what a tornado here can be.how about just a land spout/water spout(this one is used over water).
I know far more annoying words / phrases than these weather terms mentioned on here.

note that the met service use gusting to a BFT speed themselves (in the weather warnings)
i,e

The strong winds are expected to be between 6am and
1pm Sunday, with possible severe gale gusts of 130 km/h in exposed
places.

Maybe it's time to use the Beaufort scale as in the UK, ie: "gusting to force 6"

Manukau heads observer wrote:note that the met service use gusting to a BFT speed themselves (in the weather warnings)
i,e

The strong winds are expected to be between 6am and
1pm Sunday, with possible severe gale gusts of 130 km/h in exposed
places.

Yes I noticed that - which is why I thought what we were doing was ok. In the future maybe we'll say "for a time" rather than "gusts".

And I mentioned torandos today...I didn't say mini, weak or small. I hope no one thinks the movie Twister is about to develop over NZ.

130km/h is 70knots. A severe gale is around 45kts average. Maybe they were meaning a severe gale gusting to 70kts. Generaly you would need a mean wind around 45kts to achieve 70kt gusts.

good point!
I missed that...
I think you are right, thats what they meant

NZstorm wrote:... Maybe they were meaning a severe gale gusting to 70kts. ...

That's what they should, and normally would, have said. Methinks somebody stuffed-up

philip duncan wrote:And I mentioned torandos today...I didn't say mini, weak or small. I hope no one thinks the movie Twister is about to develop over NZ.

And I hope that every time someone sees a sheet of airborne roofing-iron they don't say "must be a min-tornado"...

P.S. It's spelt 'tornadoes' (not the first time Phil)

I don't know if they made a mistake - I've seen them write that many times before.

Nev wrote:And I hope that every time someone sees a sheet of airborne roofing-iron they don't say "must be a min-tornado"...

I agree...in fact it's almost becoming a kiwi-ism... squalls are now being called mini-tornados all the time. A mixture of the public calling them that and the media simply quoting them I would say. I think it's a term that will be with us for a very long time as it appears it's now evolved into the every day language of the public.

philip duncan wrote:

Nev wrote:And I hope that every time someone sees a sheet of airborne roofing-iron they don't say "must be a min-tornado"...

I agree...in fact it's almost becoming a kiwi-ism... squalls are now being called mini-tornados all the time. A mixture of the public calling them that and the media simply quoting them I would say. I think it's a term that will be with us for a very long time as it appears it's now evolved into the every day language of the public.

Just this last week I saw on stuff.co.nz that the iron being ripped off the roofs on the coast was blamed on 'mini-tornadoes'. It seems to me that on occasions when ever there is damage from winds the media hypes it up into a mini-tornado. There was even video to prove they werent a tornado but still they say that!

Yep I agree.

Was interested when out this morning to see plants in a garden (roadside plantings) that looked as if just one branch had been twisted right around and out of the centre of the plant. Maybe some strong gusts have a twisting motion of their own that does not move on to another place? Two different plants (but close to each other) and the branches had been dropped back onto the plant and nothing else appeared damaged??

was there buildings nearby?

MumCarrot. Nice name

Manukau heads observer wrote:was there buildings nearby?

Gardens were on the verges of an industrial type area - but no very tall buildings - and they were still a distance from the plants in question. I was intrigued because they were not the biggest plants around.

carrot wrote: MumCarrot. Nice name

There is a reason behind it - which concerns another "carrot" internet persona - and I am his mother (or was, we lost him

Misquoted ???

From this morning's 'Sunday News'...

'Third storm rages on while crews clean up'
Sunday, 03 August 2008 - By KRISTIAN SOUTH

Clean-up crews were last night frantically battling the weather as the third storm in less than two weeks rocked New Zealand. ...

Metservice spokesman Bob McDavitt said while this weekend's storm was likely to create further surface flooding and slips to already affected areas, they were not predicting a repeat of the widespread havoc of the previous two weather bombs. ...

MetService severe-weather forecaster Andy Downs said the latest weather bomb was moving faster than the system that brought last week's flooding and slips. ...

That's a shocking misquote!

My quote in the Herald on Sunday was taken yesterday - but looks as though it was for today! Just one of those things.

I take it you mean this article 'Owners leave homes as wild weather hits' ?

Seems to be standard practice, with 'Stuff' perhaps being the worst offender.
Perhaps MetService should write a strong letter to Stuff, clearly explain exactly what a 'weather bomb' is and suggest the term shouldn't be used flippantly?

Bomb was on the 26th. Here's how rife the practice actually is (last one's marginal) ...

'Vacated North Shore residents waiting out the rain' - Stuff
Saturday, 02 August 2008
North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said... "They can move back in, but we suggested they wait until the end of the weekend because we're a bit uncertain about what this weather bomb that comes through tonight is going to be like. ..."

'Travellers stranded' - The Ashburton Guardian
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Mrs Gallavin, who is looking after the motel for a friend, is from Renwick which has also been hit by the country’s latest weather bomb.

'Serious Damage To Dunedin' - Channel 9, Dunedin Television
August 1, 2008 - 5:30pm
Much of Otago has become waterlogged after more then a week of persistent rain, followed by what's widely being called a 'weather bomb'.

'Steamers roll on despite storm' - The Marlborough Express
Friday, 01 August 2008
The weather bomb which hit New Zealand on Wednesday forced drastic alterations to the team's travel arrangements.

'New protection shields flood-prone communities' - The Wanganui Chronicle
01.08.2008
Flood protection performed well and the Parewanui and Scotts Ferry communities rested easy during yesterday's weather bomb.

'Bay win waterlogged grind over Tasman' - Stuff
Friday, 01 August 2008 - By TREVOR MCKEWEN
With Nelson and roads south all but cut off by the weather bomb, the fact spectators even turned up at Lansdowne Park was a minor miracle.

'Weather bomb hits New Zealand' - Newstalk-ZB
30/07/2008 6:16:02
High winds, slips and surface flooding have hit the top half of the North Island as part two of a weather bomb hits the region.

One of the problems with “weather bomb” is that it is a poor choice for a technical term. It looks and sounds colloquial and non-specific (unlike, say, neutron bomb or water bomb).

Perhaps it could have been called “air pressure bomb” or somesuch and inexperienced people would be less likely to misuse it.

Better still would have been the avoidance of the use of “bomb” completely (which the Oxford defines as “a container with explosive, incendiary material, smoke, or gas etc., designed to explode on impact or by means of a time-mechanism or remote-control device.”

Whoever dreamt up the name was misguided if they thought it would suit as a technical term. It belongs with “polar rodent” and other such vividly descriptive (but inexact) terms.

Yes, fair comment and I have to say I reluctantly agree with you.

I also wonder how many hits the Waihopai spy-dish picks up

Maybe all the other depressions should be called 'mini-weather-bombs' ...

Just this morning I woke to an unforecasted 'drizzle-bomb'!

Maybe all the other depressions should be called 'mini-weather-bombs' ...

that will soon be in wikipidiea, just wait! (LOL)

Wildland wrote:One of the problems with “weather bomb” is that it is a poor choice for a technical term. It looks and sounds colloquial and non-specific (unlike, say, neutron bomb or water bomb).

Perhaps it could have been called “air pressure bomb” or somesuch and inexperienced people would be less likely to misuse it.

Better still would have been the avoidance of the use of “bomb” completely (which the Oxford defines as “a container with explosive, incendiary material, smoke, or gas etc., designed to explode on impact or by means of a time-mechanism or remote-control device.”

Whoever dreamt up the name was misguided if they thought it would suit as a technical term. It belongs with “polar rodent” and other such vividly descriptive (but inexact) terms.

Weather bomb is not a technical term. I've never come across it in the literature at all (thats not to say its not there, just that I have never seen it). The correct technical term is "bomb low" which has a particular and precise technical meaning (which I'm sure we are all aware of). I have read the original paper which introduced the term "bomb low" and from memory I think the phrase was chosen because of the "explosive" cyclogenesis in such systems. Thats why I changed the title of the recent thread about the latest storm from "weather bomb" to "bomb low".

The term weather bomb originated a few years ago as a misquote of Bob McDavitt (I think, might have been someone else) who did an interview in which he correctly described a rapidly deepening low as a "bomb low". This was initially reported verbatim by the media. However, subsequent media reports started talking about a "weather bomb" and its gone on from there. Its a total media invention.

IMHO "weather bomb" i s as annoyingly inaccurate and unacceptable as "mini tornado" or "gusts to hurricane force", and shouldn't be used by weather professionals.