7th March thunderstorms on the cold front!

[NZstorm]

As expected thunderstorms occured over the BOP today. That region had the timing right with the the trough arriving late pm and also there was convergence there. I havn't seen Taurangas' rainfall but the Te Puke site shows 35mm. Southern Hawkes Bay also looks to have had some storm activity.

[tgsnoopy]

Wicked rainfall, some of the heaviest I've ever driven through.

Glad I put a fresh application of Rain X on today

I had other commitments so didn't specifically target this, but you couldn't miss it.

A major strike to the 33kV power lines between the Greerton and Otumoetai substations cut power from the Otamarakau valley, half way to Rotorua and all the way up towards Waihi at about 5.40pm I think it was.

It's only just come back on here and I understand Te Puna, Omokoroa, Katikati and the Kaimais are still awaiting restoration.

Good stuff! Lots of surface flooding and slips abound the roads of Tauranga at present.

Encore please

[Manukau heads obs]

it sure looked good from afar, got better and better even
looks like inland BOP got hit as well

[spwill]

Looks like a cool drier air flow for the week

[Vertigo]

yes, just got back from a round trip to tauranga... i knew thatd be the place to go!

went through hamilton just as the rainband came through around 1pm. raced ahead of it, sat atop the kaimais and watched as it dumped heavy rain upon the te aroha area. decided to make our way to tauranga.

as we got there, we searched for an unsecured network )) for radar updates, but didnt end up needing them, as a Cb developed E of our position and promptly spat out a few CG's. we took up position at the beach and waited, but nothing really became of it after that lightning wise.. could hear obvious IC thunder, and some decent rain, but nothing really more than that until we tried to exit town... deluge! very hard to drive in.

wish we could have stayed longer, but needed to get back to auckland. on the way back we observed a very large Cb line with anvil extended towards the S. impressive looking!

a few (crappy) pics.. sorry, we ran out of memory on the camera. must invest in larger card.

[TokWW]

Nice contrasts - bright tops to dark underneath - sometimes I wish I had a second camera with a wide angle lens... when you are up close to them, you can't really share how immense they truly are!

[Vertigo]

yea i really did fail hard with the camera its really hard to see which ones are the best, and when you have very little room, you have to make decisions

[mikestormchaser]

Heya people, hmmm speaking of thunderstorms.. i see Fencepost put up a thundery forecast for Canterbury with a late SW change tonight?
Is it CAPE-able??

[jamie]

A few late photos from yesterday

[Lacertae]

Nice pics j-me-h !
I really like the last panoramic with the grey stratocumulus (?) giving some sort of a windy feeling to the place.

[spwill]

Storms were a bit far east for me to chase yesterday, when frontal storms develop over eastern Waikato on upper level westerlies they quickly move into the Eastern High Country, well done to Vertigo for driving through to Tauranga to catch them on the other side. Good pics j--me--h