The Next Trough

Andrew Massie · Unread post by **Andrew Massie** » Mon 10/04/2006 07:42

Weekend weather report from Arthurs Pass;

Arrived Fri night to see some great purple flashes in the clouds, about one every 10 minutes. Unpacked quickly, and no more thunder! (About 1900)

Early Sat Morning 0530 about 3 rumbles of thunder heard, and that was it!
Saturday 1700 heard 1!
Nothing on bloody Sunday!
Continuous rain all weekend, Jase's amazing Waimak (with the "good north") will be running high and muddy.

However left Sunday 1300 to see the Westpac Rescue chopper feeling its way around under about a 200ft cloud ceiling in heavy rain for a car accident near the Otira Viaduct.. That chopper's worth it's weight in gold!

Overall VERY dissappointing... The thunder I DID hear was great and echoed for at least 30 seconds around the mountains.

Andrew

Manukau heads obs · Mon 10/04/2006 07:52

i would think you would want to keep going west, as the thunderstorms would have weakened alot by the time they got to arthurs pass
but thats just my thoughts
here is a weather web site for the area
http://www.softrock.co.nz/mg/apmc.php?page=6
note they have not adjusted the baro to sea level

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Mon 10/04/2006 07:54

Looks as though there has been recent thunderstorms over the Hamilton area.. and I slept though it

Andrew Massie · Unread post by **Andrew Massie** » Mon 10/04/2006 07:58

Manukau heads observer wrote:i would think you would want to keep going west, as the thunderstorms would have weakened alot by the time they got to arthurs pass
but thats just my thoughts
here is a weather web site for the area
http://www.softrock.co.nz/mg/apmc.php?page=6
note they have not adjusted the baro to sea level

Yeah, I would have... But the roaring fire and no radio or tv but lots of alcomahol dealt to any idea of westward travel! Emma prob wouldn't have appreciated me chasing storms on our romantic getaway!

spike_01 · Unread post by **spike_01** » Mon 10/04/2006 08:01

Have been getting blasted all night here... And still it continues...

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Mon 10/04/2006 08:28

Andrew Massie wrote:Weekend weather report from Arthurs Pass;

Arrived Fri night to see some great purple flashes in the clouds, about one every 10 minutes. Unpacked quickly, and no more thunder! (About 1900)

Aaron and I saw flashes when we crossed the Bealey Bridge and then when we arrived at AP Village at 18:15 that night.

However left Sunday 1300 to see the Westpac Rescue chopper feeling its way around under about a 200ft cloud ceiling in heavy rain for a car accident near the Otira Viaduct.. That chopper's worth it's weight in gold!

The last flash we saw before we got to the Coast was when we were stopped at the temporary lights (where that accident occured) at about 18:30. It was incredibly bright and we heard the thunder only a couple of seconds later even over the sound of the rain on the car roof.

Andrew Massie · Unread post by **Andrew Massie** » Mon 10/04/2006 09:55

Steven Graham wrote:
Andrew Massie wrote:Weekend weather report from Arthurs Pass;

Arrived Fri night to see some great purple flashes in the clouds, about one every 10 minutes. Unpacked quickly, and no more thunder! (About 1900)
Aaron and I saw flashes when we crossed the Bealey Bridge and then when we arrived at AP Village at 18:15 that night.
However left Sunday 1300 to see the Westpac Rescue chopper feeling its way around under about a 200ft cloud ceiling in heavy rain for a car accident near the Otira Viaduct.. That chopper's worth it's weight in gold!
The last flash we saw before we got to the Coast was when we were stopped at the temporary lights (where that accident occured) at about 18:30. It was incredibly bright and we heard the thunder only a couple of seconds later even over the sound of the rain on the car roof.

So how far towards Otira were those traffic lights?

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Mon 10/04/2006 10:05

Andrew Massie wrote:So how far towards Otira were those traffic lights?

They were at Pegleg Corner, about 5km from AP Village and 1km before you get to the viaduct.

Manukau heads obs · Mon 10/04/2006 10:27

easter looks to be good weather coming,....
which is good....our school is having a giant annual easter auction to raise funds (i am the PTA chairperson), so if anyone in this area, come along to get a bargain this saturday from 9am!

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Mon 10/04/2006 16:20

Winds now here at Gale Force(of course just gone SW) and light Rain

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Mon 10/04/2006 18:44

Yes, good to see Easter shud be mainly fine. Painting the house.

Got woken early this morning by heavy showers and heard 1 rumble of thunder.

Manukau heads obs · Mon 10/04/2006 18:48

maybe a cut off low in the tasman from easter monday with unstable NE conditions and a front moving down from the north??

Storm Struck · Unread post by **Storm Struck** » Mon 10/04/2006 19:19

Few strikes raning on tracker alon east coast just latly and i see on CHCH forecast it says for tomorrow showers possible morning storm

interesting.
Should be some good heavy possibly thundery showers coming trough overnight a nice cool NE kicked in this arvo certainly some nice mares tails and cirrus forms this afternoon a sign of whats to come perhaps

.
Cheers
Jason.

Storm Struck · Unread post by **Storm Struck** » Mon 10/04/2006 20:55

Flashes visable from SE-SW now good cell out there for sure check out the 8pm sattlite.
Cheers
Jason.

dogmelon · Unread post by **dogmelon** » Mon 10/04/2006 21:20

Watched the flashes for awhile, 20-30 second intervals made it like watching paint dry.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Mon 10/04/2006 22:44

I went and put the rubbish out at the gate around 9:30pm and saw about 3 flashes to the south of here in a space of about 5 minutes.
A layer of Sc moved up from the south later and hindered anymore observation.
Yes there should be storms in the morning.

JohnGaul
NZTS

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Mon 10/04/2006 23:33

All that i could manage tonight, storms to far away for camera to do them justice. Still I enjoyed watching the show from Birdlings Flat.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Mon 10/04/2006 23:42

Thanks Steve for supplying pictures of a rather disapointing show.
I think you have to be exposed to the west to enjoy a good lightning show these days

There was a good footage of lightning in the clouds this morning in Wellington on the weather on TV One news tonight.

JohnGaul
NZTS

Storm Struck · Unread post by **Storm Struck** » Mon 10/04/2006 23:43

Yeh well still nice to observe some lighting anyway i tried getting flashes on camera no sucess worth a try tough.
Maybe a boom and flash when the wind change comes through early hours not staying up for though.
Like this sattelite of the CB a classic indeed.

Cheers
Jason.

Manukau heads obs · Tue 11/04/2006 08:28

some more heavy showers overnight in the auckland area
the showers are surprisingly heavy from not much vertical height....

71mm in 11 days,might start to get the water tables being topped up soon

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Tue 11/04/2006 08:53

Thanks Steve for supplying pictures

Aways good to see some pics of the storms though distant.

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Tue 11/04/2006 10:34

Missed the sound & light show on Sunday night here - house is sheltered from various kinds of weather but is not very good for viewing - especially to the south and east. Can't have it all ways...

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Tue 11/04/2006 12:17

Aaron and I drove out to the coast near Taumutu and watched the storm for an hour or so from just after 9pm. The best lightning we saw was on the way there and as we were setting up

This included a flash with three separate CG return strokes !

These are crops from DSLR photos - trying to zoom in usually meant I missed the lightning completely

I haven't checked the video footage which was pointing at a different part of the storm but it probably won't be very good with the distance involved.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Tue 11/04/2006 12:43

Out near Akaroa I didn't notice any thunderstorm activity, just some sferics on the radio about 11pm. After a fine day, it became showery just before midnight with some briefly heavy falls through to about 8.30am, but sun is breaking through now.

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Tue 11/04/2006 14:15

Heavy squally showers continue here.. with a gusty cool westerly

Incoming high looks rather cloudy (here atleast).. and the next two lows gearing up could get interesting

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