General December Weather

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

..immm interesting. Didn't notice a thing when I went for a look this afternoon so I came home and didn't bother checking the radar or anything as it was just dull and claggy looking towards the mountains. Surprised later on when I learnt that MS had issued a STW.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

A mainly fine day after some rain overnight, earlier in the night, clearing away. Some Cu forms along the foothills this afternoon but not looking interesting with winds from between the south and east and lower cloud moving in later this afternoon.
Winds dying out this evening and becoming cloudy. 24.3C for today.

[Richard]

So far so good with the forecast gales, only been light/moderate ...so far . See what the afternoon brings

[Storm Struck]

Have heard it's gusting over 130+kmh in the high country now, quite gusty inland too from the NW but more moderate Northerly over the city.
A few brief showers this morning too.

Long range has some very welcome rainfall from next Sunday through until mid week at varying stages.

[Richard]

Winds have become light now, so nothing came of the 150kmph gust warnings here at least.

[Richard]

Long range has some very welcome rainfall from next Sunday through until mid week at varying stages.

Yes with each run its looking better and better

[mikestormchaser]

So far so good with the forecast gales, only been light/moderate ...so far . See what the afternoon brings

From the models I read the worst was suggested for north Canterbury later tonight/overnight Northwest gales.

[darcyplumb]

The wind has virtually come out of nowhere here right now. Very noisy, I can hear the roar outside.

In other news, big fire near West Melton with evacuations happening as I type.

[LinksviewAcres]

Very strong here in Waimate. Just lost another tree. First since the July 2022 NW'er

[Razor]

Super windy here in Halswell. Violent roaring gusts shaking the house. Smoke alarms going off at Lincoln which i presume are triggered by smoke from the West Melton blaze tonight. Smoke tracking across Rolleston and Lincoln. Rough night!

[Kobi]

very windy outside right now, gusts of 85km/h at the airport right now, can hear it quite loudly against my house

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Warm and windy down here in Geraldine today especially this afternoon and evening. Today's temperature peaked out at 29.2C.
High cloud clearing away all together from this morning, this afternoon becoming blue dome.
Fine mild evening with some flashes away to the west.

[Richard]

Nasty winds overnight here also. Being so dry the hard ground would have helped stabilize trees from toppling over
The only carnage noticed this morning was a flax flower stem had crashed down over the driveway. ...oh and and half a million cabbage tree leaves having to now be picked up.

[Storm Struck]

Quite strong and gusty last night over this side of town, plenty of reports of trees down across the rohē.
Interesting how these fires seem to be suspiciously in the same area to last year's, I don't mean the train track one the others.

A very dry but warm week ahead, but welcome rain into week 3 of December.

[Nev]

Some max gusts in the last 12 hrs from MS...

MetService max gusts in 12 hrs to 8am Nov 09.jpeg

https://x.com/MetService/status/1865840419592134668

[Orion]

https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-na ... reak-winds

About 15 caravans became airborne during a freak wind event in Central Otago on Sunday afternoon.

One fire appliance from Cromwell responded to the incident in Gilmore Rd, near Mount Pisa, about 12.50pm.

A Fire and Emergency NZ spokeswoman said about 15 caravans, which were understood to be used for seasonal worker accommodation, became airborne in sudden winds.

"The fire crews are thinking it’s a very localised weather event," she said.

The caravans were unoccupied and nobody was injured. ...

More at link.

Wind was a bit noisy last night but nothing untoward here. I think damaging wind here very much depends on which river-gorge the nor'wester funnels through, and the angle of attack.

[spwill]

Lightning/thunder here just now, from the west.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

A blue dome day here today apart from some clouds and moderate to fresh westerly winds.
26.2C the maximum for today. Winds easing away this evening.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-na ... reak-winds

About 15 caravans became airborne during a freak wind event in Central Otago on Sunday afternoon.

One fire appliance from Cromwell responded to the incident in Gilmore Rd, near Mount Pisa, about 12.50pm.

A Fire and Emergency NZ spokeswoman said about 15 caravans, which were understood to be used for seasonal worker accommodation, became airborne in sudden winds.

"The fire crews are thinking it’s a very localised weather event," she said.

The caravans were unoccupied and nobody was injured. ...

More at link.

Yes. I saw this article in the ODT today.
I don't know if you saw it but in the Ashburton Courier newspaper (Dec 5th)there was an interesting article about a man who's car was struck by lightning around the Mt. Somers area on Tuesday morning of the 26th November around 11.30am when coming back from a fishing trip to Lake Heron.
Apparently no lightning as recorded in NZ on that day according to MS. According to my weather dairy it was generally a day of clagg with some drizzle, so I don't know what caused that rouge lightning strike ?

[Nev]

^ Interesting about that apparent rogue lightning strike 2 weeks ago John. I see the ODT/Star News also ran that story a few days ago...

https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-di ... ing-strike

[Nev]

Plenty of lightning out in the Gulf from around 12:30am this morning - lasted about 40 minutes.

Also a very welcome 30mm here in the last 12 hours so far...

[spwill]

Some useful rain here overnight, 18mm locally, a few lightning flashes yesterday evening.

[Nev]

Air NZ flight struck by lightning 20 minutes after taking off from Auckland around 8:30pm last night...

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/air-new-z ... MVQYU6QPU/

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Another fine and warm day here today. 26.5C the maximum for today with light winds.
Some interesting cloud forms over the hills this afternoon that didn't come to much.
Light sea breezes here today.

[spwill]

An isolated thunderstorm risk here tomorrow afternoon as upper levels cool, humid conditions tomorrow with some rain/showers . Fri/Sat are fine sunny.