End of week bitterly cold outbreak

Manukau heads obs · Fri 04/07/2003 22:41

maybe by the morning canterbury and further north will be ground to a stand still...!

i have a visitor here wanting to drive to taupo/turangi tomorrow....i wonder if the snow will close roads right down to the taupo area...

Manukau heads obs · Fri 04/07/2003 22:42

update on the weather here:
getting lightning strikes recorded now, and I can hear distance thunder.....so the Cb's are becoming real active now as they move over warmer water....

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Fri 04/07/2003 22:54

The urban heat island effect seems to be showing itself here in central Chch, with the snow taking longer to settle than in the outer parts of the city. There's now a thick coating on cars and garage roofs near where I live, but only a little on lawns, and the roads are still clear.

BTW the snow looked spectacular at Halfmoon Bay, Stewart Island (as seen as Nightline). A far cry from the mild conditions when I was there just a month ago.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 04/07/2003 23:04

Looks like that front has settled into the Christchurch area with potential for quite a fall, more particularly on hill suburbs. The snow must be really accumulating out on Banks Peninsula.

Odd heavy shower here now in Auckland.

Re the roads over the central NI tomorrow. I would expect the worst Brian. Will be good falls of snow south of Toupo.

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Fri 04/07/2003 23:19

NZstorm wrote:Will be good falls of snow south of Toupo.

You mean in TowPu

Will the SW of the NI get snow ie Manawatu Wanganui?

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Fri 04/07/2003 23:22

The thunder has now started up here too its rumbling across the sky

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 04/07/2003 23:29

The odd flash noticeable here too with distant rumbles.

Dean. · Unread post by **Dean.** » Fri 04/07/2003 23:35

I can read the headlines now "Auckland roads treacherous with hail"
Im off to bed,and taking my shovel with me.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 04/07/2003 23:41

Hail here now.......and the very occasional quite loud thunder.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 04/07/2003 23:49

That storm is over now as quickly as it started though still light rain with a temperature of 8C. Chilly. I'm off to bed but I'm guessing there will be more thunder overnight to wake me up.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sat 05/07/2003 01:02

Lucky buggers!

[quote]Been snowing thickly since about 8.45PM in central Chch (lightly before that) and settling, though not yet on the roads and footpaths.[quote/]

Snowing thickly Ben (not fair!!), here in Southshore (right next to the beach) there is no snow setteling at all. A little bit fell here at sea level about 5:30pm but apart from that I've seen nothing! In town of course and at School I saw quit a bit of snow fall earlier on but nothing had settled by that time. The most snow I've seen today is when my Dad turned the windscreen wipers on when we left from his work and the snow that was on his windscreen packed up into enough perhaps to make a small snowball.
I'm off to bed, perhaps some more will fall tomorrow?

Cheers
Aaron Wilkinson

Dean. · Unread post by **Dean.** » Sat 05/07/2003 01:59

Unbeleiveable now 21 centimetres and counting.
This is getting serious.

Manukau heads obs · Sat 05/07/2003 06:56

7am
wow!
21 cm?!

hail here and 100's of lighning counts overnight ( and my over active weather warning system sent out 130 emails ivernight

), and still the worst of the hail showers still to ome...
looks like the central NI will cop it all right from the latest sat pic,,,,,and it looks to be still snowing perhaps in canterbury and further north?

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 05/07/2003 07:53

I heard more thunder in the early hours but it was off in the distance.
That thundery front is out east now.....the next crop of big cb's should be coming in later this morning. Chilly morn 8C, light showers.

The front over North Canterbury still looks active.

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Sat 05/07/2003 08:07

Its like a Westerly flow here today theres big Cbs with gales from the SW and horizontal rain with some hail then it drops right down with clear patches like it does in a disturbed W flow

Dean. · Unread post by **Dean.** » Sat 05/07/2003 08:23

Still freezing cold here,-0.5 light snow showers.
25 cm on my front lawn,18-20 lying on road.Lesser amounts east of state highway one.Snow ploughs are clearing the roads at present.
Deeper snow than last year but the snow is a lot dryer,probably because temps are a lot colder.
Cheers.

jeffsweather · Unread post by **jeffsweather** » Sat 05/07/2003 09:09

More snow overnight here. 5cm on the desk and lawn. Snow/sleet been falling for the past 25 minutes, temperature 0.9C, looks a bit brighter to the south.

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Sat 05/07/2003 09:31

jeffsweather wrote:More snow overnight here. 5cm on the desk and lawn.

Whats the Desk doing outside in the snow

DECK?

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 05/07/2003 09:42

The cb's over Auckland are looking real wintry. Temp 8C.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sat 05/07/2003 09:47

We had the first of the cb's go though last night at 11pm with plenty of thunder and a bright light show. Mostly heavy rain with a little hail.

Out to the west and north west I can see some big glaciated cb's that are part of the next wave. Wil be intersting to see if these will be as active as the first.

G

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Sat 05/07/2003 09:56

It may go even lower than the 7 degree maximum we had back in 1996

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Sat 05/07/2003 10:08

Just a few light snow showers in Amberley, barely enough snow on the ground to scrape together. Reports of 16cm at Wakanui east of Ashburton tie in with Deano's obs, and 8cm in Greta Valley, North Canterbury.

Looks like the heaviest falls were south of Chch, rather similar to last year's event. I have yet to see any reports from Banks Peninsula, or further north in Marlborough or Wellington.

Chris Raine · Unread post by **Chris Raine** » Sat 05/07/2003 10:11

In the last 12 hours we had some more light snow and showers of ice pellets through the night to about 3pm . After that things froze. Icm of frozen snow and ice outside this morning. Everything white,cars crunching up the road and sliding into the intersections. Temp 0.3 at obs. Stll haven't had any wind from the south out of this event. Things appear to be clearing with most cloud and shower activity to the east now.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Sat 05/07/2003 10:13

A heavy snow shower with big flakes coming down in CHch as I write. About 0.5C.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Sat 05/07/2003 13:23

Looks as though the "BLAST" is all over.
From noon, increasing fine periods with the occasional brief miniature small hair shower. Some small Cb glaciated towers (hope Aaron is looking). Temp here at 1pm - 3C in the sun, too warm for any more snow or snow related weather. Should be a minus 5C frost here tonight!

JohnGaul
NZTS