MetService Severe Thunderstorm Warnings

[Dale]

I am still critical of them after all this time & agree with you on the convective outlook.. however weatherzone DO provide one during the peak summer season to which you do not need to be a silver member to access, it is freely available but again youre right. Not every average Joe on the corner knows nor realises anyway. Its been around for a while but still.. the BoM could pick up on it. Albeit government run and on a certain budget etc etc..

[Razor]

Brillaint, well done to all involved!

[mikestormchaser]

Sounds great guys.. I will be keeping reports coming on here as usual during the season and im sure rest of the extreme weather enthusiasts.

And will be looking fawed to the new MS T/S warning radar.

[Weather Watcher]

The MetService blog now has an updated example of the Severe Thunderstorm Warning graphic...

http://blog.metservice.com/pages/severe ... g-service/

[Razor]

Round of appluase. Fantastic work!

[TokWW]

It will be better for us here in the Sth Waikato, Taupo and BOP to have one of the new radars in action to assist with the forecasting of these micro events for coverage on the fringe of the current Auckland radar range and NP radar range. I am hoping to have another weather camera in Tokoroa that can face the SE and East from a different location in town too. My primary camera has gone down, and third one is not in it's final place yet...

Any thing that helps the MS see the growth or extent of the storms on the convergence line... Although, if you're in the middle of it, its hard to tell what's happening! Keep it up MS!!

[Tornado Tim]

I think it would be advisable for metservice to implement a system like the NOAA's skywarn system. Expanding on what Dale Small said, people may call up and claim its severe when it not and that would be a complete waste of time for you guys.
So it may be advisable to implement a testing system to check what is classified as "severe", I would like to be the first 1 to be called a trained "severe storm spotter" LOL.
Perhaps when we go to see the metservice it may be a good time to give out the training/tests there and then when we visit?

[Tornado Tim]

It seems they are broadcasting the feature on 3 news tonight......
Update: why weren't you on screen Paul?

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I forgot to look but did Metservice try it's new service yesterday with relevance to the Kaitaia tornado?

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Tornado Tim]

No they didnt.

[spwill]

I forgot to look but did Metservice try it's new service yesterday with relevance to the Kaitaia tornado?

No Radar up there, perhaps the day deserved a watch.

[Manukau heads obs]

there was a possibility of weak tornadoes on the thunderstorm outlook that day though

[NZstorm]

It can be a problem catching tornadoes on radar unless the storm is close to the radar.

[Vertigo]

yes, the US certainly has things better in that regard.

[Nev]

It seems they are broadcasting the feature on 3 news tonight......

For those who missed it, here's a link to that 3 news story and video -

'New high-tech MetService service allows for better warning system'

[NZstorm]

I am hopefully still on topic here but radar images of two tornadoes over South Auckland a couple of years ago. Observed by the Auckland University mobile radar who just happen to be out on the day. The radar shows two small circulations which were evidently the tornadoes. If we were able to get a broader view of the storm we would see a storm with an elongated hook. It would of course be a hook echo the Met Service would be looking for.

http://austin.phy.auckland.ac.nz/tornado/

[Manukau heads obs]

nice !
I see the topography shows up ...the counter clockwise hook...at first I thought that was the tornado...but that false rain reflection does not change or move through each frame, as its a reflection off the land, LOL

did they know it was unstable that day or was it a fluke?

[Nev]

Coincidentally, there was an interesting program about tornadoes on Sky's Nation Geographic channel last night, primarily focusing around what's been dubbed the 'Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak' in Feb last year (I'm sure it will be repeated).

One interesting comment was that, although current Dopplers are reasonably state-of-the-art, one problem is that it takes about 6 minutes to complete a scan, or rather a series of scans, to complete an image. A lot can happen in that time, which makes the image somewhat blurry. Now they're looking at a new type of Doppler resonance lidar, which is already in use by the US military. This can complete a scan in less than a minute and would not only give more warning time, but the image would obviously be much sharper. Apparently it's expensive though!

[Tornado Tim]

It would have to be, was it said to be a single ray radar? Apparently they are testing a new single ray radar on the TVN car operated by Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor this year.

[jamie]

Now they're looking at a new type of Doppler resonance lidar, which is already in use by the US military. This can complete a scan in less than a minute and would not only give more warning time, but the image would obviously be much sharper. Apparently it's expensive though!

Awesome! We learnt about resonance lidar and the images it produces in my GIS paper last semester. Very expensive but totally worth it

[Manukau heads obs]

we saw that military radar when we were over there, in a motel carpark

[Weather Watcher]

The radar referred to in the program on SKY last night is an (electronic) Phased Array Radar. They are very expensive (currently 10's of million dollars). Here's a link describing them...

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/research/radar/par.php

[Tornado Tim]

Paul,
Why isnt Hamilton on the list of covered citys for the severe thunderstorm warnings.
Hamilton seems to be covered by the closer range (Bright Blue circle)
so why isnt it covered?

[Paul Mallinson]

Paul,
Why isnt Hamilton on the list of covered citys for the severe thunderstorm warnings.
Hamilton seems to be covered by the closer range (Bright Blue circle)
so why isnt it covered?

I don't have an image in front of me right now and I don;t know what list you are looking at,but if it is within 180 km of the Auckland radar then it is. If its within 150km so much the better. When the Bay of Plenty radar is up and running, it will be served well by that radar even better.

People will have to realise that apart from cases fairly close to a radar, we won't be able to spot tornadoes directly but we might spot a typical pattern such as a bow echo with a hook. In the Kaitaia case, Kaitaia lies at about 180km from the Auckland radar and so the radar beam is quite high above that location.

Paul

[jrj]

Do we have any idea when the Mahia site will be up and running?