Lows and cool change, Apr 26 - May 3

[David]

That rain moving down towards Auckland, currently in northern Northland, is falling at a rate of 12mm/hr at Wainui. Should expect to see 30mm - 50mm overnight now rather than the 60 - 80mm previously predicted.
The wind never even became strong today...and all lightning activity in the Tasman has unexpectedly ceased

[Andrew Massie]

Uh oh, it's stalling....

[Gary Roberts]

I hate to use the 'F' word but, as far as the SI goes, this "event" doesn't seem to hold any promise of Action Weather now.

Temps are mild and even the rain has faded away.

The NZ Met Service still seems to be haunted by June 2006. I wish they'd get over it.

[ricky]

Detected a small amount of lightning somewhere Whangarei way.. an interesting bit of activity there at the moment at the frontal boundaries

[NZstorm]

My thoughts on the lack of lightning activity this evening is that there is a layer of warmer upper air over us tonight, its interfering with the instability, reducing CAPE/lightning activity onthe incoming front. I made mention of this possibility yesterday morning. The upper air starts cooling off rapidly after midnight and we should see some thundery showers around here tomorrow, if we don't get some thunder tonight.

[gopolks]

Very windy in chch now, but i guess the bad stuff is going miss us.

[David]

Heavy rain has set in here, 7mm in the last hour, 20mm since midnight. Still pouring at Mangawhai as well so more to come for us

[Manukau heads obs]

heavy rain occured here at Paihia...water was up and over the footpaths in places on the side of the street
i was able to tell the family, we got go to the shops now, before it rains...and we just made it...having checked out the rain radar!
no lightning observed
i see the kerikeri station is up 56mm since midnight
eased away now

I see the western side of the Manukua heads got 50mm between midnight and 3am this morning, and Waiuku got 32mm (only 10mm at our place on the NE corner of the peninsular)
often the Western side gets more rain in these NE/NW wind convergence rain systems

[Andrew Massie]

Don't worry, there's a giant freaky face coming at us!!! 9pm IR animation!

[jamie]

Heavy rain just became torrential here. Lasted for about 5mins and has eased back now.

[sw_windbow]

Don't worry, there's a giant freaky face coming at us!!! 9pm IR animation!

Judging by the goggles, I'd say thats Amelia Earhart or some other lost aviator.

[Vertigo]

im seeing a starry sky here in penrose

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Lightning is starting to develop somewhere according to the sfericals but I must go off to bed, sadly

JohnGaul
NZTS

[Michael]

What we have to watch out for is the Nasty stuff on Thursday to Saturday.

[David]

Wow last night's rain was insane! I wasn't reporting because I had intended to be in bed, but was re-awakened at 11pm due to heavy rain. It lasted a while so I watched it, and it just persisted, and got heavier. Between 11pm and 12am, I recorded my heaviest 1hr sustained fall of 32.0mm of rain (heaviest I have recorded, not observed). You can see it on the radar, over Howick, the red blob.

11pmrainradar29apr08.png

This part had rain averaging about 1mm/minute for a period, with a more NW wind change. By 12.15am we were under the stars! Total for the night was 44mm. Yesterdays rain total (midnight to midnight) was 56mm as a result.

Some surface flooding around here during the heavy fall, very minor like streams of water flowing down the section - but I am on a gentle slope so nothing incredible. The local creek about 150m from here must have been raging full though!

Well done to metservice issuing the warning! - I know this event was very local but they said 30 - 50mm overnight with intensities up to 30mm/hr possible.

[Gary Roberts]

How much did Northland/Whangarei get?

[David]

How much did Northland/Whangarei get?

It varied depending on east or west locations...Whangerei managed almost 60mm and Dargaville only 10mm. Kerikeri higher up managed 59mm yesterday, and reported a fall of around 35 - 40mm in an hour yesterday evening.

Much of Auckland only had 15-30mm though. I was just lucky with 56mm here. 65mm reported at Eastern Beach a few km's away.


Interesting extract from newstalkZB weather blog/news:
"An interesting thing to note is how New Zealanders react to weather warnings. In America severe weather warnings are issued every day. When a thunderstorm or tornado doesn't hit, the public feel relieved. In New Zealand, our first reaction is often to say "the forecasts were wrong". In fact, last night, Auckland was extremely close to receiving a deluge that would've seen properties all over the city flooded, but because the weather "breathes"...rain bands explode, then die away, explode back to life, then die away, etc, Auckland was spared at the last minute during a "dying" phase. The rain band broke apart just before it made landfall, sparing the central and western suburbs. However further north, Weather Watch reporter John Martin, from Whangaparaoa, said he saw the heaviest and longest downpour he's seen in the five years he's been based there, reporting that the rain was so intense it started pouring down his chimney."

[Gary Roberts]

Thanks David. I have a friend in Whangarei who was trying to convince me that it was warm and sunny all day. I knew he was lying through his teeth but thanks for the confirmation!

[Manukau heads obs]

we actauly weree on Ninety Mile beach yesterday on a bus trip (school holidays) to Cape Reinga

it was actualy a very nice morning yesterday morning in the far north,blue skies and warm (23oC) temperatures..it was like a summers day, sparkling blue tasman waters etc
but that all changed from midday...we just got some photos in before the cloud base lowered right down onto Cape Reinga ,and the rain started heavy by the time we got back to the Bay of Islands later in the afternoon

ps, looks like it was the eastern auckland area to get the rain.....the west of of manukau heads only got 1mm last night....(54mm the night before)
(we got 3mm of the eastern side of the peninsular)
auckland city in between still did not make up to those bigger totals though by the looks

it was again a very dynamic situation!

[Manukau heads obs]

photo of ninety mile beach yesterday morning (at the Bluff)

[Brassnz]

Here in Laingholm we received 26mm from this event, which further supports previous comments from David and others.

[Manukau heads obs]

yup,as suspected, taranaki got hit hard:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4503345a11.html

local newspaper here in northland reports of some flooding in places
not surprising after so much rain has falled already this year up here...30 to 500mm of heavy rain is running off now up here (more so than if it was drier (more normal)ground)

[David]

Been through one of the local reserves this evening, and was shocked

The stone chip paths were washed out in parts - at one point a higher pathway had been separated into two because of deep erosion! The staircase I went up was a mess - lumps of dirt and piles of stones, leaves and sticks all around the place, and the steps had been partly dug out by running water!

Some of the paths have 'new' gutters about 20cm deep now, where the original gutters (which had been dug out years ago) had been filled with leaves and stones over time, which was all swept away downhill into a pile.

32mm in 1hr is not an exceptional fall, but the 10mm overnight and the 12mm in the 2 hours before 11pm is what caused the deluge to cause so much erosion (ground already very wet). Very interesting to see indeed

[jrj]

http://www.hbtoday.co.nz/localnews/stor ... ubsection=

[NZstorm]

Auckland was spared at the last minute during a "dying" phase.

To warm upstairs, this showed up in the models days before the event. But with this type of system you should always expect the worst anyway.