NZ Weather Forum

Hi all

I drove from Te Anau to ChCh yesterday after competing in the magnificent event that is the Kepler Challenge.

The trip home saw one of the most dramatic temperature drops I've ever seen in my life in a very short distance as we went over Burkes Pass and into the wall of NE clag and drizzle. At Lake Tekapo the temp was a lovely sunny 24 degrees. A 10 minute drive down the road saw it plummet to 8 degrees when we hit the clag line, insane stuff!

It had actually been even hotter on the Omarama side of the Lindis Pass, topping out at 28 degrees before we hit the breeze coming up the Waitaki Valley which shaved it down to 22.

And it wasn't even a southerly front!

Not bad! Fog can create some differences often here, but nothing that extreme.

I guess our climate description fits well then, "temperate with sharp regional contrasts ".

I remember last winter one clear morning it was 0C here but was 11C at Whangaparoa at the same time, under the influence of a light easterly up there. Quite surprised about that at the time.

Razor wrote:Hi all

I drove from Te Anau to ChCh yesterday after competing in the magnificent event that is the Kepler Challenge.

The trip home saw one of the most dramatic temperature drops I've ever seen in my life in a very short distance as we went over Burkes Pass and into the wall of NE clag and drizzle. At Lake Tekapo the temp was a lovely sunny 24 degrees. A 10 minute drive down the road saw it plummet to 8 degrees when we hit the clag line, insane stuff!

It had actually been even hotter on the Omarama side of the Lindis Pass, topping out at 28 degrees before we hit the breeze coming up the Waitaki Valley which shaved it down to 22.

And it wasn't even a southerly front!

That's a well-known phenomenon there, and is part of the reason that Tekapo and environs is much sunnier than the zone to the east of pass, or any of the eastern part of the province, for that matter. I experienced a typical case of that many years ago. It was a mid-January day - the analysis I saw later showed a weak 1016HPa high over the middle third of the country, but a slight kink along the Alps and through Cook Strait, with a gentle NE return flow over Canterbury. It was a beautiful day in the Mackenzie and Central Otago, with temps in the 22-25C range. About halfway from Tekapo to the pass there was light easterly breeze, and from the Pass onwards there was low cloud over the entire plains. Only a few spits of drizzle, but the temp. at Christchurch wouldn't have topped 15C that day.

I'd be curious if anyone else has seen a 16 degree drop in temp so dramatically when its not a southerly change

I'm well familiar with that Tekapo basin anomally from many vists, but thats the most pronounced I've seen it

How and where did you measure the 8C? It sounds pretty low to me.

The trip home saw one of the most dramatic temperature drops I've ever seen in my life in a very short distance as we went over Burkes Pass and into the wall of NE clag and drizzle. At Lake Tekapo the temp was a lovely sunny 24 degrees. A 10 minute drive down the road saw it plummet to 8 degrees when we hit the clag line, insane stuff!

You occasionally see different weather on the other side of the pass. It is fairly high up so the air chills easily under the low cloud cover but the dry plateau north of Burkes Pass will warm very quickly in the December sunshine.

RWood wrote:How and where did you measure the 8C? It sounds pretty low to me.

Ok not completely scientific... Subaru climate control... however it is always within a degree of any proper recorded temp I compare it with, so I believe the accuracy. Plus it was confirmed on the local radiostation in Timaru that Tekapo was 24 while we were there

The 8 degree was right on top of the pass, it was fair howling though

The point being even if a degree or two out it was a dramatic change and I'm curious to hear what other people have seen in the past