Auckland 26 Nov - nice buildups

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Wed 26/11/2003 17:36

On the way home from work (early day yeah I know) I spotted some nice buildups, so went up Mt Eden for a look....

All clickable thumbnails:

Old decaying system

New buildup to the north

New buildup to the north getting serious

New buildup to the north maturing

Mature

New updraught over west Auckland - rock hard

New updraught over west Auckland - interesting 'feature'

Old anvil from initial buildup, only 14 minutes after first picture

More images at http://www.graemewi.orcon.net.nz/pictur ... r2603.html

Got pelted with very heavy rain on the way home out in west Auckland, along with a couple of claps of thunder. No pictures of that though as I was on the motorway...

Cheers,

G

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Wed 26/11/2003 18:42

The 4pm radar shows some pink bits

G

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Wed 26/11/2003 18:50

Excellent pics Graeme. What time did you get these. Could be the same
cb I photographed over North Auckland around 2pm.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Wed 26/11/2003 18:55

The first image was at 2.46pm

The 'mature' image was 3.05pm

The new updraught images were at 3.05pm

In hindsight I should have remained on top of Mt Eden a bit longer! Oh well, next time.

Cheers,

G

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Wed 26/11/2003 19:00

Lotsa nice shots
I feel like a 'Michael' in a thunderstorm sense and say why cant those thunderstorms pass over here, instaed of !!
Interesting day here though, cloud wise.
EnE blowing for most of the day but cloud more cumulussy that expected.
Origionally I thought it would of been a overcast day with spits of drizzle but it has been sunny but a mottly stratocumulus moved across during the afternoon with the occasional very vertical Cumulus.
Should be a boring day tommorow

JohnGaul
NZTS

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Thu 27/11/2003 08:33

Got a nice multicell pass by around 7.30pm last night...captured a little bit of it's lifecycle as an earlier updraught died and a new updraught dominated.

6 minutes between the first and last pictures.

Cheers,

G

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Thu 27/11/2003 10:10

Yeah, all the activity was right over Hamilton!! I'd say that this was Hamilton's most violent storm in 5 years... flash flooding was widespread. It came from the north at 5.20pm and flashes were seen once or twice every 10 seconds

. Nothing in the news as yet, but after all the very heavy rain, sirens were sounding left, right and centre! At 5.00 we had a very balmy 23c northerly (warmest since April) and at 6.00 when it cleared, it dropped all the way down to 17c. The BEST weather is in Hamitlon, thunderstorms, hailstorms galore! why do u live in Auckland?

THUNDERSTRUCK!

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Thu 27/11/2003 16:09

Foggy Hamilton wrote:Yeah, all the activity was right over Hamilton!! The BEST weather is in Hamitlon, thunderstorms, hailstorms galore! why do u live in Auckland?

THUNDERSTRUCK!

...and why do I live in Christchurch ????

We may get our day sometime

Ho hum

JohnGaul
NZTS

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Thu 27/11/2003 17:59

Your camera takes excellent photos Graeme. I believe you have a CanonA40. I have canon powershot G5. I guess both cameras would be very similar. I think Canon provide the best image quality of the digital cameras.

A few more images from Yesterday.

Mature cb with back shearing anvil. Anvil had spread over the top of me.
Quite an active cloud here. The storm would have been over the Whangaparoa area. Time of photo 2.32pm.

Building cb. Looking toward Auckland from Botany Downs. Sun was right into my camera here. Time of photo 3.34pm.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Thu 27/11/2003 18:53

Yip the Canons are very good - I've convinced another 2 people to go digital with A70s...

I'd love to visit some of the more active storm location like Darwin

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/cgi-bin/u ... 2;t=000106

Maybe even Bathurst and Melville Islands to see 'Hector' up close and personal...phew that would be a photgraphic heaven!

http://www.canberra-wx.com/tempfiles/hector/

Cheers,

G

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Thu 27/11/2003 20:13

Re Darwin Storms
Darwin does get good thunderstorms but they don't get the super cells in the northern territory. New South Wales and SE Queensland get the best storms in Australia. Victoria and South Australia often miss the storm activity as they don't get the moisture there.

Michael · Unread post by **Michael** » Fri 28/11/2003 07:11

When I once went to Darwin for a week it was humid,sunny and hot with 34c and an overhead sun There was Ts at night ringing the sky with lightning but no rain at that time

Manukau heads obs · Fri 28/11/2003 13:53

good stuff guys!
today, friday, still very unstable in the auckland area, with showers building up quickly right over the whole area...and large drops of rain wtih them, and probably hail in places too, as there has been some big anvils at times.Temperature is fluctuating alot with the showers.
you can see the build ups on my animated web cam
http://www.weather-display.com/windy/animatedwebcam.gif

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Fri 28/11/2003 16:26

Yes, an unstable day with one or two heavy showers about. There have been a few thunderstorms with hail over Coromandal/Bay of Plenty regions.

Spring like temperatures upto 18C. Upper air is quite cold with midday freezing level over Auckland around the 1600m level.

Towering cumulus/showers developing morning over Auckland

Well glaciated cumulonimbus over AK 12.40pm.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Fri 28/11/2003 18:44

Spring like temperatures upto 18C. Upper air is quite cold with midday freezing level over Auckland around the 1600m level.

That must be pretty low for late November. It would mean snow showers above about 1300 or 1400 metres if there were mountains that high in the Auckland region. (MetService mountain forecasts today have the North Island freezing level at 1700 metres)

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Fri 28/11/2003 18:52

Really pathetic weather day here in ChCh.
Looks as though it didn't try to do anything.
One or two cumuluses like in the above photograph but not trying to do anything.
The NE never kicked in here until 6pm which of course being too effing late!!
Bit annoyed but nevermind.

JohnGaul
NZTS

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sat 29/11/2003 16:23

I'm very impressed with all these pictures, great stuff! Seems like after a period of stable weather for the north things came out great with some awsome looking storms / Cb's.

I'm deciding at present whether I should go with a digital video camera or a digital camera, I think I'll get a digital camera first but I'm torn between the canon G5 and the nikon coolpix 5700, the G5 looks great, takes good pictures and the price is right but I see the maximum amount of time you can open the shutter for is 15 seconds, the nikon has a b (or bulb) function meaning you can have the shutter open for an infinite time (a maximum of 2 minutes is all I need though). But yes, since the G5 can only open for a max of 15 seconds I'll think I'll go with the nikon coolpix but this camera is more pricey so I'll have to search for a good price if I go with that.

Can anyone suggest anything as to what I should do or go with, any info would be great!

Yes John, weather no good. There were some wintery type Cb's in the morning yesterday over Banks Peninsula but no chance of thunder / lightning. Looks like it will be another week or two until the situation might show more promise.

Cheers
Aaron Wilkinson

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 29/11/2003 18:20

Aaron,

Photo Warehouse have the Nikon5700 for around $1,600 and the Canon G5 for around $1,500. Both prices down alot from where they where a few months ago.

The " 15 second" limitation on the G5 is quite minor in my opinion unless you are the Lightning Stalker who was on telly the other night. I also have a Canon SLR EOS3000 with a bulb function on it. But rarely
do I have the requirement for it.

When I bought my G5 I also purchased a polarising filter. I think the ability for a digital camera to take a filter is important for cloud photography. Don't buy a camera that can't accommodate filters.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sat 29/11/2003 18:51

There is a very good online retailer in Gore... http://www.camerawarehouse.co.nz/default.asp

G5 $1320 (incl gst)
5700 $1749 (incl gst)

These are NZ models. I got my A40 from them last year.

There is another online retailer http://www.etown.co.nz/

G5 $1145 + gst ($1288 incl)
5700 1421 + gst ($1598 incl)

These are 'grey market' models imported from Asia... still exactly the same models as NZ but without a local warrenty. I got an A70 for my father from there.

There is quite a good thread on the Australian forums on digitals for weather photography http://www.weatherzone.com.au/cgi-bin/u ... 1;t=003607

Agree with NZStorm re the polarising filers - I'm a big polarisor fan, both of my SLRs have polarisors in their camera bags ready to go. Although I can put one on my A40, I find I can compensate by using a little manual under-exposure...

Also think about batteries - many digital camera use rechargable lithium-ion packs which are expensive to buy ($80-$140+) if you want to have a spare pack. One of the main selling points of the A40 and A70 for me was the AA battery size which means I can get a couple of sets of rechargable 2000 mAh NiMH batteries without damaging my Visa.

Add on another $100 for some memory for the camera. 128mb CF cards can be picked up for around $80. Many cameras come with small capacity cards (eg 8 or 16 meg). Also check out the price for the media that the camera takes... the likes of compact flash (CF) cards are cheap, SD is more expensive, and Sony memory sticks must contain lots of gold and titanium and other assorted rare metals.

Cheers,

G

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sat 29/11/2003 18:54

Manukau heads obs · Sat 29/11/2003 19:25

where could i get a wireless web camera, NZ ?
thanks

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sat 29/11/2003 19:52

There is one that I know of, no doubt there will be more.

D-Link DCS-1000W wireless internet camera

http://www.dlink.com.au/products/multimedia/dcs1000w/

About $700-900 locally

In NZ Ascent and BIll Leckie Computers carry them.

G

Manukau heads obs · Sat 29/11/2003 20:24

Ouch!

ok, next Q
how far could I extend a USB cable and still be OK?

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sat 29/11/2003 20:39

The specs for USB say 5 meters, but have found an article where a test was done and they had a webcam working from 17 meters... link below:

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answ ... 02,00.html

Cheers,

G

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sat 29/11/2003 20:54

Thanks for the info guys

Looks like the G5 fits my bill. I'm still going to see if the nikon one can accept polarizing filters and if so I may reconsider, I note that the G5 though has a better range of apatures so thats good, of course it's a bit cheaper to so yeah......

Things look G5'ish but we'll have to see.

Cheers
Aaron Wilkinson