Surprised no-one has started one-off for today (unless my interwebby thing is no longer working ok).
Anyhoo, some nice active Cu around at the mo, the mid to upper levels out west seemed a bit milky before (by this i mean that when a Cu rises and then it hits that 3-5000m high cap/inversion and then flattens out and becomes incorporated in AltoCu - also when this happens the edges of the Cu go all floury and lose that crisp look).
The ones to the south look a bit better. Metservice have T/S warnings for most of the upper north island today, so hopefully they'll get it right and we may be in for a night show!!!!
There does seem to be a bit of high cloud tho which may attenuate uplift to a point.
Oh yes, Cb off-shore Raglan, with bases of 1500m and rising about 4500m Lots of towering cumulus around (biggest i've seen in a while)
Should become fine here though
Great looking Towering Cu around Auckland today but they are short lived.
Thought I could see Cb to our South 10 mins ago through the cloud. Met service Radar suggests there is one down there over the Coromandel.
Sea breezes are very weak so far today however late afternoon should see more local wind and a better chance of some of these Cu forming showers with the help of convergence.
looking a bit pffftt at the mo with the upper not looking too crisp anymore.
pretty humid and calm tho, so we shall see. Some of the women at work believe somethings bound to happen today cos they "can feel it in me waters"!!! - i would hate to know what "thunderstorm influenced" waters feel like..!
at this stage tho i would be betting on the coromandel, inland waikatoo, and the volcanic plateau
Location: West Coast Road, Manukau Peninsula, North Island
Unread postby Manukau heads obs »
boy, once those cb's broke the barrier, they would race up to very high altitudes in like 10 minutes flat....the speed of the up draughts must be very high!
I think the parcel of warm air was from me being so mad at having to go into work and miss all the action! lol
... and a chance to do some calibration of the boltek, esp with the northern storm centre....
I didn't go storm chasing today. Should have. Some good cb action south of Hamilton. I finished work at 6pm and decided to go for a drive south to Bombay to get a better view. Could see a large buildup south of Hamilton with lightning flickering about every 30seconds.
Looking at the midday sounding, air was quite unstable but with a cap at 3000m. That cap is what prevented cb's developing around Auckland (apart from the isolated cb over Hunuas). The cap is not big, so storms easily developed inland. 7pm satellite shows cb's over Northland and Gisborne as well.
I like the photos. I should have got out there and taken some. See what happens tomorrow.
boy, once those cb's broke the barrier, they would race up to very high altitudes in like 10 minutes flat....the speed of the up draughts must be very high!
The cap allows CAPE(convective energy) to buildup above it as the surface temperatures rise. The Cap holds back the cumulus untill CAPE has got relatively high. Hence once cumulus towers break the cap they suddenly become highly bouyant and rise very quickly.
Remaining dry in Hamilton but very warm... Towering cumulus were spotted east, north, west, south everywhere! One I saw towards Te Aroha was skewing around and it looked like it was about to fall over!
Here is the Cb you are talking about Steven, wonderful display of sunset lightning.
I'd plot it about 100km south of Hamilton, just northwest of Taupo.
So this is what it's probably like to live in Darwin - only cooler, everyday in summer?
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
first up Auckland, next over Kawerau way...
