West or northwest gales 19th October

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Thu 19/10/2006 10:06

Plenty of warnings out for gales today. Here it Chch it must've reached near gale-force northwesterly earlier in the morning, but it's eased back now. Far south should be getting it even worse, with gusts predicted up to 140kph about Fouveaux Strait today

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Thu 19/10/2006 10:14

Overcast again here..cold not much wind...I would consider this month almost on a par with December 2004,February 2004,December 1982 the way its been here

sw_windbow · Unread post by **sw_windbow** » Thu 19/10/2006 10:58

Nearly 22Â°C in Dunedin. Gusty strong breezes at present, with quite lengthy pauses between gusts.

jeffsweather · Unread post by **jeffsweather** » Thu 19/10/2006 11:02

It was tough heading into the nor'wester on the bike this morning. Avoiding the plastic milk bottles blowing about was another interesting part of the ride as its recycling day in the northern part of Christchurch.

Now the wind has died down to a light breeze hardly moving the leaves on the trees. It may be back again this afternoon though.

Compie · Unread post by **Compie** » Thu 19/10/2006 11:28

Outside Temperature 23.8Â°C
Wind Chill 20Â°C
Dew Point 6.4Â°C
Wind Speed 134.9km/hr

http://dunedinweather.stroppykitten.com/weather.cgi

the Stroppy Kitten's weather site is the only one that has ever given a true account of the weather I get here on the Otago peninsula. Those winds are iuncredible aready.

At the varsity it's only 45Km, and that's very sheltered there, and the airport only has 55km, but too they don't get the nasty stuff that gently wafts over the peninsula.

enjoy all.

Flutterbye · Unread post by **Flutterbye** » Thu 19/10/2006 12:16

After a pleasant morning within the last half hour the wind has turned from a moderate NNW to an extremely strong westerly, some of the gusts are quite scary. Temp has dropped from 20Â° down to 13Â°

Compie · Unread post by **Compie** » Thu 19/10/2006 12:53

You can see the cloud build up from the south west here in dunedin.

I might just keep looking north and enjoy the warm sun today.

Flutterbye · Unread post by **Flutterbye** » Thu 19/10/2006 12:58

Compie wrote:You can see the cloud build up from the south west here in dunedin.

I might just keep looking north and enjoy the warm sun today.

That is what I was doing earlier.

kiwisk8er · Unread post by **kiwisk8er** » Thu 19/10/2006 13:24

Compie wrote:Outside Temperature 23.8Â°C
Wind Chill 20Â°C
Dew Point 6.4Â°C
Wind Speed 134.9km/hr

Yep its pretty warm and windy where my weather station is, its now pretty much overcast. I hope this time the NWer won't take glass of the top of my glasshouse.

Area51 · Unread post by **Area51** » Thu 19/10/2006 13:44

Wind has backed around to 270 degrees magnetic @ DN airport now, still gusting 25-30kts to has abated somewhat.

Wellington blowing hard, 50kts at present out of 340. Nice and rough for those flying today!

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Thu 19/10/2006 14:37

No more gales in Chch - norwester has just been fresh, and pleasnatly warm. (about 24C now)

kiwisk8er · Unread post by **kiwisk8er** » Thu 19/10/2006 14:38

About 15 mins ago the wind started changing direction, the temperature dropped and it started raining for a bit. Thought I heard some thunder. There is no rain now and its calm and 14 degrees.

Snowlover · Unread post by **Snowlover** » Thu 19/10/2006 16:00

The gales have returned to christchurch in about the last half hour and getting stronger

Manukau heads obs · Thu 19/10/2006 17:02

kiwisk8er, were you at home when you weather station recorded 140kmh winds today?
thats more than just "prety windy"
thats over hurricane force winds

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Thu 19/10/2006 17:18

Nasty afternoon here after a lovely day yesterday - very strong winds and some drizzly rain. Castlepoint at 4pm was reporting 126kph according to the Weather Underground table.

Manukau heads obs · Thu 19/10/2006 17:24

Also,you can view the Met Service weather stations data here:
http://www.metservice.co.nz/default/ind ... servations

Personaly i think they should have it as a simple text table, i,e station names in the first column , the each column after that the different weather parameters
would be much easier to find and compare the data you want

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Thu 19/10/2006 17:28

Vice versa our afternoon has improved,the winds have dropped,gone WNW and the temp is up to 18Â° with the sun out

RWood wrote:Nasty afternoon here after a lovely day yesterday - very strong winds and some drizzly rain. Castlepoint at 4pm was reporting 126kph according to the Weather Underground table.

kiwisk8er · Unread post by **kiwisk8er** » Thu 19/10/2006 17:54

Manukau heads observer wrote:kiwisk8er, were you at home when you weather station recorded 140kmh winds today?
thats more than just "prety windy"
thats over hurricane force winds

No I was at the urgent doctors waiting for them to xray my knee.

Manukau heads obs · Thu 19/10/2006 18:41

well, i have (and Ricky and C-nimbus) have stood on a hill top in winds of 120 kmh gusting 130kmh, and at 130kmh your cheeks start flapping, and you are constantly loosing dribble out the side of your mouth,and it hurts your eyes to look into the wind (eye balls start to get pushed into the sockets) and you are leaning at a 45o angle and any sudden change in speed and you completly loose balance and can get blown over..
Try putting your head out the car window when you are travelling 130kmh on a not very windy day....
now, is that the sort of windspeeds being experienced in your area today?
if so,then,good stuff! (i love being in winds like that, does not happen enough around here))
(sorry to hark on about this)

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Thu 19/10/2006 19:14

A gust to 140kmh does not mean hurricane force winds, to qualify as that it needs to be a mean speed over 63 knots (117kmh), which is what it appears Castlepoint recorded today. Saying a gust is "gale force" or "storm force" or "hurricane force" is as misleading as using the term "mini tornado".

The nor'wester is a very much gustier wind than the southwesterlies you are referring to at your location Brian. The gust ratio in a Canterbury NWer is near 2 (ie gust speeds are twice the mean speed), which I believe is amongst the highest in the world. OTOH winds from the sea usually have a rather low gust ratio.

Its not at all uncommon for us to experience mean speeds of 30-35 knots and gusts of 60-70, and that has happened several times today. Further, I would suggest, that it sounds as if the location of that Dunedin weather station is such that gustiness is enhanced by the local topography (lots of hills) and mean speeds quite possibly enhanced too as a result of channeling along a valley.

All this could add up to those speeds being realistic gust measurements but without having mean speeds like you describe at the Manakau heads. In other words, if the SW you get off the sea Brian gusts to 140kmh then the mean speed is very likely to be near hurricane force, but in an east coast NWer that is unlikely to be the case.

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Thu 19/10/2006 20:46

I would also suggest that Wellington NWers are also very gusty in the right situations. I can recall that in the night leading into 1 August 1975, Kelburn had a couple of gusts in excess of 160kph, but the mean speed was probably only 50-65 or thereabouts. OTOH the southerly is far less gusty, particularly in locations facing the water - eg the Petone foreshore, where I worked for several years until recently (thankfully no longer, for non-climatic reasons).

kiwisk8er · Unread post by **kiwisk8er** » Thu 19/10/2006 21:13

TonyT wrote:Its not at all uncommon for us to experience mean speeds of 30-35 knots and gusts of 60-70, and that has happened several times today. Further, I would suggest, that it sounds as if the location of that Dunedin weather station is such that gustiness is enhanced by the local topography (lots of hills) and mean speeds quite possibly enhanced too as a result of channeling along a valley.

You are true as I've said before our local topography makes the gusts more enhanced, when there is a norwester it funnels between two lots of hills before it gets to our place.

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Thu 19/10/2006 22:34

Something like that happens in a small hilltop subdivision near Island Bay - although it faces southwards to the Strait the really ferocious winds are from N/NW - convergence into a valley running southwards, with a bit of downslope as well. The exit winds rip out to sea and also over the small hill.

Manukau heads obs · Thu 19/10/2006 22:40

i know all about wind Tony, you dont need to tell me, its my favourite sunject

Yes hurricance force is based on mean speed of 63 knots, I know all that...
still, even gusting to that speed is still wind at that speed occuring, and in fact its fast occuring gusts that can do more strucural damage than more sustained winds.

The hills and steep gullies in this district and 500 foot near shear coastal cliffs create very gusty winds, and so I am very familiar with gusty winds....there are locations here where watching the wind come down off big hill sides is like as if a helicopter was flying above, and I have measured wind gusts go from 5 knots to 70 knots in seconds and then die away just as quickly
also, a cold SW wind over relatively warm sea temperature (e.g in November) associated with active squally showers produces spectacular gust fronts as the suqall arrives, where I have observed sand lifting 100's of feet into the air above the coast hills....
also, dont forget i spent 3 years at lincoln....but never observed winds like you can get around here

so, yes, I can believe that an exposed steep hill side will be recording the winds shown.....
I would love to visit one real windy day , thats my kind of excitment

anway, i do see that Bluff has been getting gusts up to 58 knots:
http://www.southport.co.nz/tidewind/Default.asp

Manukau heads obs · Fri 20/10/2006 13:15

Note that I am just jealous that you guys down south get more severe gales than we do up here (and we dont seem to be get as many as we used to up this way compared to the 80s (or is that just my memory?))