Ground Hog Week or (Cold End To June)

[Cameo1]

Its the warm water in the harbours. The lightning seems to really occur over the Manukau out this way and slightly inland where they still have a bit of energy

[jamie]

Chilly 7 here with nasty looking clouds still about. Had some really good showers come through today with heavy rain with a little bit of hail thrown into the mix. I have to get up at 3am as my flight leaves at 6am. So hopefully there are some more thundery cb's come through that i can watch come off the sea, but im not expecting much by that stage.
Ground must be fairly soaked by now. It is rather decieving how much rain there really is as thses showers come through. They end up edding up to alot more than you think.

[tgsnoopy]

A big lightning strike in Auckland has taken out the Police & Fire Northern Communications Centre!

Major problems for those in Blue uniforms without Northcoms online.

[Lawrence]

I really think that as the deep low moves away north east off the east coast, that metservice are under estimating the wind strength through the straits and for the northeast of the south island. Just looks like it could be really bad with orthographic effect taken into account.

[Razor]

Undersetimating? They have warnings out for 140km!

[Manukau heads obs]

wind slowly increasing, barometer slowly increasing, temperature also increased a bit after those hail showers, and wind slowly backing around to the W, from WNW, now too
should be much clearer skies tomorrow here hopefully as the wind goes more southerly, for up this way
will be nice to see some sunshine for a change

[Lawrence]

Undersetimating? They have warnings out for 140km!

Yeah,I know.I still think they are under estimating.

[tich]

A heavy shower of sleet in Hams at around 11am this morning as I was refereeing a soccer match, no thunder though. Just cold and wet out there...

Sleet in Hamilton - could it melting hail/rain mix rather than melting snow stuff we normally think of when we use the word? Snow has been forecast to 800m in the central North Island today, but I wouldn't be surprised if it got lower going by the temp obs at some places today - 3C in Taupo and Takapau plains at 6pm (latter with recent precip) and 6C in Rotorua at noon. But Hamilton - seems too low.

[TokWW]

What's Hamilton's elevation 50m or something? We haven't seen any indication of snow at 330m here in Tokoroa. It was small scale droplets - good rain size but too small for melting snow and yes probably melting hail/sleet - I haven't checked temps for the morning in Hams, probably around 8ºC at the time. I did get a sweat up before the front came through though Hey! I'm learning something here...

[David]

Hail shower just through here with that large CB.

We had 88mm rain in the week from the 22nd to 28th.
559mm this year, nearly up to average I presume!

[Manukau heads obs]

i hoped you might have copped that one David
as it stayed active looking this time as it moved inland
it had an impressive rain free base inflow area and even what looked like a beavers tail at one stage!

[tgsnoopy]

Never mind the hail... Any thunder & lightning? Counting the days here

[NZstorm]

Any thunder & lightning? Counting the days here

Cb's look a bit mushy this morning but the air is still unstable so isolated thunder still possible I guess. Would be nice to clock up another day for the record book.

[Peter]

i hoped you might have copped that one David
as it stayed active looking this time as it moved inland
it had an impressive rain free base inflow area and even what looked like a beavers tail at one stage!

Watched that CB from here in Pt Chev as well - classic inflow band into the updraft - very picturesque with the rising sun behind the line of cumulus towers - reminded me of the storms I've just been chasing in the States!

See attached pic of similar stuff at sunset in the States a few years ago

[Manukau heads obs]

i wish now I had taken a photo of it...but was hoping someone else would, LOL
just had a good hail shower again!

[Ryan Thomas]

-4 low for Christchurch tommorow according to metservice... seem right?

[NZstorm]

Yes just had the heavy rain/hail shower thru here, had a bit of a gust front on it.

The Photo above looks like Altocumulus catellanus. Nice sunrise pic.

[Weather Watcher]

-4 low for Christchurch tommorow according to metservice... seem right?

The -4C temperature is for Tuesday morning, not tomorrow.

[Michael]

Hopefully even the Cold SW may even bring out the sun,need it to dry out,it probably wont matter so much now because there is enough pine needles in the roof already.

[spwill]

That Heavy shower moving in. Hail here as well.

[Ryan Thomas]

Wooah thats a very dark cloud picture

[tgsnoopy]

Awesum picture. Love the contrast.

Fired off a shot of Mamatus yesterday after Gary (KaimaiKid) rang me.

Mamatus2.JPG

The photo doesn't do it justice. Sadly no lightning.

[spwill]

Joined 3 pics
Heavy shower moving in across the Manakau Harbour this morn

[Peter]

Yes just had the heavy rain/hail shower thru here, had a bit of a gust front on it.

The Photo above looks like Altocumulus catellanus. Nice sunrise pic.

Yeah, you're right - they are Altocumulus castellanus - a different cloud form than an inflow band to an updraft - it's actually a sunset picture taken in North Dakota in 2005 - I just posted it as illustrative of the cumulus towers that were feeding into this morning's CB with the rising sun behind them - couldn't get a good pic here of today's inflow band from my vantage point - too many buildings in the way.

[Peter]

Joined 3 pics
Heavy shower moving in across the Manakau Harbour this morn

Great photo! - you can really see the gust front cloud pushing out ahead of the storm - was quite dramatic rolling over here shortly after with the intense rain shafts lit up by the sun.