NZ Weather Forum

Well that was a bit of A drizzle event for chch, still we should be grateful, we dont need more rain.

It's interesting to see that the heavier rain is more north of Kaikoura at the moment, the last few radars havnt shown that much of a heavy increase in precipitation even over North Canterbury.
Going by the MSLP maps which suggest rainfall should increase from here onwards so we shall see.
Just light rain at the moment here and 32.6mm now.
Kaiapoi river is up very high again, it will be interesting to see how it holds up in the next few high tides.
Cheers
Jason.

47mm recorded so far (since rain began early yesterday) where I am on western side of Akaroa Harbour and persistent drizzly stuff continuing. Over to Akaroa late this morning and looks like rain had been a bit heavier (probably overnight - not when I was there) on that side of the harbour, as streams were higher.
Hardly a significant flooding event, but I noticed several new slips on ground already damp from earlier rains.

Luckily for those still cleaning up from July the rain doesnt seem to be as heavy - while certainly not letting up it just doesnt have the same intensity - possibly because the centre of the low is quite a distance away - and slowly moving further away. Perhaps a lot of surface flooding/slips but unlikely to have the devastation of July's storm. Also that ridge over the far south seems to be holding firm - that should spare Chch I'd say. Just my 2 cents anyway

Looks like the Chathams are in for some rough weather too! We dont have anyone from there do we???

Just been for a drive to Amberley and Waipara and steady moderate-heavy rain falling throughout the region with heaps of surface flooding. State Highway one has many areas where the roads are under water, one in which my car was going through water as high as the top of my wheels that i decided to turn back as i got worried! Almost every paddock has flooding to some degree with one paddock very deep of water ready to burst onto state highway one just past woodend. I dunno if we are going to get anything significant here in the City. The rain radars dont suggest this happening still and not seeing any evidence in any maps or graphs of this happening. Seems to be quite moderately steady rain out by the airport and suburbs in line with that such as hornby etc. However, near the hills in Hoon Hay, Halswell, Cashmere the rain is very light, so light that jeffs weather station isnt picking it up in the rain gage. Interesting...

Well the rain has steadily been getting a little heavier, moderate now, but it's been raining lightly with moderate falls the whole day.

philip duncan wrote:Luckily for those still cleaning up from July the rain doesnt seem to be as heavy - while certainly not letting up it just doesnt have the same intensity - possibly because the centre of the low is quite a distance away - and slowly moving further away. Perhaps a lot of surface flooding/slips but unlikely to have the devastation of July's storm. Also that ridge over the far south seems to be holding firm - that should spare Chch I'd say. Just my 2 cents anyway

Looks like the Chathams are in for some rough weather too! We dont have anyone from there do we???

I wouldnt have thought that this time round the rainfall wouldnt need to be as heavy due to the fact that the ground is already so saturated.

As for the Chathams I havent seen anyone on here from there. Is there a chatham weather station avavliable online??

That's a fair point Stormchaser... I still feel that many large rivers should be able to remove the water as fast as it falls... although it's certainlly very close to tipping one way or another.... it would only take an hours torrential rain to tip the balance.

As far as the Chathams go - I only have forecasts sent to us by weather.com... but no current conditions.

philip duncan wrote:
As far as the Chathams go - I only have forecasts sent to us by weather.com... but no current conditions.

MetService do have an AWS there, Phil

JohnGaul
NZTS

Jasestrm wrote: Kaiapoi river is up very high again, it will be interesting to see how it holds up in the next few high tides.
Cheers
Jason.

What about the "Great Lakes" to the east along the Flaxton straight?

JohnGaul
NZTS

Yep there building, should be right from lineside to flaxton rd in the morning.

steady light rain here in my part of chch, I think its actually S not cold out though around 7C atm, i cant see it being as heavy as suggested though. prob not a bad thing lol

[quote="tornadoman18" i cant see it being as heavy as suggested though. prob not a bad thing lol[/quote]

why would you want to laugh out loud about that?
I think alot of people will want it to stop raining.
JohnGaul
NZTS

And why does everyone say its not as bad as expected the main rd is closed and some areas have had 200mm+ so just cause its not raining in chch does not mean the event is a fizzer its just raining were its ment to- north of chch.
67mm so far here in rangiora.

Well said Melja...some Christchurch posters need to think before they post

Back to drizzle now which is probably a good thing not sure whether its going to get any heavier overnight.
At least there is a lovely fat high which will attack the country from about Thursday and give the country a dry period until about Tuesday,Wednesday next week.
I wouldnt say winter is over yet though as it may well continue until at least mid September even though we would love to get out of it.
I think we might be up for a bumper storm season too after all this rain which will be great fun .
Ive recorded up to 151mm since July 31st which is quite high even for an almost monthly total, i also think Christchurch's annual rainfall is about 350mm correct me if i am wrong.
Cheers
Jason.

350mm seems too low, i always thought it was 600mm.
I googled it and some sites say 648mm, others the 350 like you said.

I've always thought 600- and something for ChCh average. 350 is more like Central otago

Jasestrm wrote: At least there is a lovely fat high which will attack the country from about Thursday and give the country a dry period until about Tuesday,Wednesday next week.
I wouldnt say winter is over yet though as it may well continue until at least mid September even though we would love to get out of it.

This WE does look promising with an intense high moving over us but the WE after looks a wee bit like this WE with another low locked in over NZ between 2 anticyclones.

JohnGaul
NZTS

30-year averages: Ch'ch Aero 630 Gardens 653

Rain rates eased considerably overnight, in fact we added only an extra 10mm to bring us up to 86mm total for the storm so far, but currently rates are back up to 3-4mm/hr with heavier falls. Roads have a lot less water on them this morning than they did yesterday afternoon.

On the annual totals thing, its worth thinking that in the last 30 days we have had close to half our average annual rainfall! (some parts of North Canterbury have probably exceeded half).

Mt Hutt now reporting a 3 metre base. Rainbow up to 4 metres...astounding for a field that in recent years has struggled to even have enough snow to open!

401mm!!!!!

http://www.ecan.govt.nz/Our%20Environme ... _no=233610

8o 8o 8o 8o

No rain here since midnight. 0.0mm. Other areas of CHCH looks like some light drizzle or showers by radar. Forecast for CHCH says "rain, Southwesterlies". I think this could be changed to drizzle patches. Its definately not rain. Kaikoura still geting hit hard with 9.4mm in the last hour. Looks like the rain band is coming more together again in north Canterbury with a few heavy falls

The rain shadow affect of Banks Peninsula is clear to see on this morning's radar images. Still raining steadily here, heading towards 100mm now.