Severe Weather - N/Island - Early July

[Michael]

Those who dont have a copy of the NZ Herald.The print edition also has a big satellite picture on it,Looks like yesterdays one.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/sto ... d=10520295

Its just a normal winter here,1986 was exactly like this,so was 1990 but it was even wetter,many other winters /or spells.
Its just Aucklands stupid location as the rest of the country hasnt experienced much of this.ie Wellington makes a big thing of it on Saturday when the southerly arrives,It used to be like that all the time.

[Manukau heads obs]

41 knots (76kmh) in that last squall (it was forecasted to get windy again from the SW today, looks like it has, in the squalls at least)

[David]

Torrential deluge just through here, but it was very brief. 2mm fell in 2minutes and their was spray in the air, and a few small bits of hail mixed in.

[NZstorm]

There's several different types of hail.

Snow pellets used to be known as soft hail but the classification changed. A snow pellet is made out of a snow flake, the snow is rolled into a ball by turbulence. I have seen ice pellets in the UK, (rain frozen to ice before it reaches the ground)

Problem with using google is the Americans label things a bit differently. They label freezing rain as sleet for instance.

I observed snow devils at the weekend. Maybe the term is incorrect but they were spin ups of snow off the ground with the stronger wind gusts. Never seen that before. I tried to photograph them but they were always too short lived or distant to get a good photo.

[NZstorm]

Photo here of entry to Chateau Tongariro on Sunday.

[Michael]

0° here

[Thunder]

Awesome pics NZstorm, looks like you had a good time

Cheers
Aaron

[gllitz]

Snow pellets used to be known as soft hail but the classification changed. A snow pellet is made out of a snow flake, the snow is rolled into a ball by turbulence. I have seen ice pellets in the UK, (rain frozen to ice before it reaches the ground)

Problem with using google is the Americans label things a bit differently. They label freezing rain as sleet for instance.

I observed snow devils at the weekend. Maybe the term is incorrect but they were spin ups of snow off the ground with the stronger wind gusts. Never seen that before. I tried to photograph them but they were always too short lived or distant to get a good photo.

Found some really good definitions of the different forms of precip on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_pellets (and just click on the form of precip you want to see...the microscopic pics are pretty neat...esp "graupel")

It would appear the words for the different forms of precip are based off the internationally accepted METAR codes for everything...so ice pellets (METAR code PL) are what North Americans (myself included, as it is how I learned it growing up) call sleet...

[David]

Has a most interesting chat with my neighbour (south of our section), and she thinks there might have been a twister-type wind event go through 10pm on Saturday night.

About 10pm there were 2 great crashing smashing sounds and the next morning there was a huge branch fallen of the massive conifer to the SE of her house. It had smashed her neighbour's fence and was right up against another neighbour's house!

She also showed me a broken limb from her plum tree (it was an old tree though), and described how her gate slammed shut - against the direction of the wind that day, and there were twigs on her property in the opposite direction to what the wind that day had been. However she knew of no other damage nearby to her - I would have been interested to know if anyone else had lost roof tiles, or tree limbs.

The massive conifer mentioned was badly damaged in the SE storm last July, and it was one of the top priority trees the council had to deal with (it endangered peoples houses).

I remember the thunderstorm and hail that went through at 10pm that night, my weather station (probably about 50m from where the limbs broke) recorded a max gust of just 61km/h. I was even on our porch watching! However these twister-type events can be concentrated within a 10m path (Glendowie incident comes to mind), so unfortunately I will never know what actually happened.

[spike_01]

Hi people.. Taken this morning.. I havent seen the snow that low and thick on the Tararuas in 14 years..

[Vertigo]

Has a most interesting chat with my neighbour (south of our section), and she thinks there might have been a twister-type wind event go through 10pm on Saturday night.

I wouldnt be suprised tbh! That was a hellova wind alright. If it was a tornado, It probably was forming above me before heading your way.

wow... a major squall just ripped through penrose, headed east.
tree bending continuous wind and BB-pea sized hail for 10 minutes with gusts i would guesstimate in excess of 130km/h... never seen such force in a thunderstorm before. lightning too, lots of it! (seems to have stopped now)