Warm and Dry for the East...Again

[Nev]

There would have been no more than 2 hours yesterday

Only 0.3 hrs to be exact, so 260.9 hrs to end of Tuesday (taken at Chch Aero though).
Need to average at least 6.75 hrs per day from today till Saturday...

[Storm Struck]

Interesting to see that overnight convergence of drizzle, plenty of cloudy areas around this morning although the sun is beginning to re appear again.
I didnt expect to see this forecast from the MS for Saturday.
South Island, showers in the west reatreating south of Hokitika. Showers for a time in the east, some heavy and possibly thundery in Canterbury and eastern Otago. Fine elsewhere.
That would be great but i am not so sure conditions are ripe enough.
Cheers
Jason.

[Razor]

Plenty of sun with only scattered high cloud now, those that are looking for the sunshien hours record will be pleased to hear

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Yes plenty of sunshine on my side of town and 22 degrees with light winds, very nice! I have been at qe2 village green watching Canterbury TRY to bat against Otago and all out for 86 so came home. Conditions were a lot cooler and more overcast overthere and on the southern side of town where i am now. I was shivering at Qe2 but now im warm!

Big variation too looking at weather stations its actually 23.4 degrees here now and about 17 or 18 for suburbs north of the city centre

[Razor]

I've been wondering... and don't all queue up to confirm...but what constitutes "sunshine" hours?

Is it full and completely unblocked sun or is there a certain threshold of brightness

Don't mention the cricket.

[Nev]

It can include thin cirrus etc, so long as a reasonably discernible shadow is cast.

[spwill]

It can include thin cirrus etc, so long as a reasonably discernible shadow is cast.

You must get quite a lot of marginal sunshine hours east of the Alps especially in Otago with the thin high cloud layers.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDE00900.loop.shtml

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Heavily overcast this morning with low cloud and a very light southerly, i didnt think a southerly change overnight was on the cards. Hopefully this clears soon as we need sun to beat our record of sunshine hours, need at least 7 or 8 hours of it today i'd say. Saturday the last day of the month looks a scorcher with 31 degrees on the cards by the metservice.

[Razor]

Been patchy light rain for the past couple of hours here. Metservice forecast is waaaaaaaaaaay off the mark today

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Havent had any rain here at all but low cloud about. Radar shows some parts city might be getting some drizzly rubbish but the band is quickly breaking away. I dont see how saturday is meant to get to 31 with southerlies in the mix from midday and showers....

[Ryan Thomas]

at the Saturday forecast, its been increased a bit. Ahhh I wanna go for a longboard today (got one yesterday) and its a bit windy..

[Razor]

The record might not happen now folks. Its going to be close though, its a bit like needing 15 off the last over in a one day cricket match, it'll come down to saturday!

[TonyT]

I've been wondering... and don't all queue up to confirm...but what constitutes "sunshine" hours?

Is it full and completely unblocked sun or is there a certain threshold of brightness

Don't mention the cricket.

Sunshine hours is one of those rare and curious parameters which doesnt really exist independantly at all, because it is defined by the instrument used to measure it. This curiously circular and basicly anti-scientific definition is hard to find in any other aspect of meteorology. Bright sunshine is measured by burn marks on a card in a Campbell Stokes sunshine recorder, and defined the same way. There is a skill to reading a card, and inferring what constitutes bright sunshine and what doesnt, and of course the cards all need to be the same thickness, etc etc. IN recent years a number of other techniques and instruments have been developed in order to remove some of this dependance on interpretation (eg light sensor switches, shaded vs non-shaded radiometers, etc) but their one weakness if they are all designed to mimic the operation and results of a Campbell Stokes!

[RWood]

Small wonder that the sunshine histories for virtually all NZ sites show fluctuations that in almost every case are probably not climatological in nature. However if the dependency to past C/S data is removed, I see no reason why a more objective definition can't be used.

[Razor]

Great explanation thanks Tony!

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

I dont know how the metservice could get the weather so wrong for here. The radar has quite a fair bit of rain on it from north otago to south Canterbury with scattered light falls in the vicinity of the city. Still its 20 degrees here even although few spots of rain and heavily overcast even with the southerly which is rather warm.

[Storm Struck]

Yes its almost a muggy southerly day if there was ever such a thing for Canterbury, few spots of rain out this way too which do seem to be picking up now and getting bigger drops too.
21C with a light southerly, its really amazing what the weakest of situations can bring sometimes for example the cold front moving along against a high pressure system.
Met Service seems to be on the gun for thunderstorms this weekend, now also suggesting sunday for north Canterbury and Marlborough.
Cheers
Jason.

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Yes very muggy indeed Jason. Infact the temperature is steadily on the rise now up to 22 degrees and still very heavily overcast with low cloud and some dampness in the air.

[Myself]

I'd bet a lot of the rain shown on the radar is not making it to the ground. Has any station actually recorded rain down there today?

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

NO your quite right 'myself' no stations have recorded anything that i can see and i know that my part of the city has only had dampness in the air not reaching the ground. Up to 23 degrees.

Yay! The sun is out finally through thin high cloud! Temperature up to 24 degrees now.

[TokWW]

A PWS in Ashburton has recorded 0.2mm today.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Patchy light rain here this afternoon in mild conditions and cloudy skies.
0.2mm so far.

JohnGaul
NZThS

[tich]

Just spitting at times in central Chch from late morning, and now looks like clearing somewhat.

[mikestormchaser]

I originally thought it would turn out to be an absolute boomer today looking at the skies this morning, then bang! in came the Southerly.
Low cloud came on in and few spits here and there, and to be honest really few spits all day and even now.
Warmed up quite well once i got home, very humid!

[Razor]

Well its another grey and dreary day, no hope of the sunshine record now