General July Weather

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Had another 25mm here Yesterday so 85mm in two days, yesterday was only morning and evening rain. Today the sun is out and i can see snow on the hill surrounding us which would be about 500-550m i would say.
Back to Christchurch tomorrow. Hopefully bring a little but of sunshine back with me to replace what seems to be unbreakable low cloud. Although i did check jeffs weather station yesterday and the webcam showed some blue sky in it. A balmy 10 degrees here heading for 12. Heatwave for me when you consider christchurch hasnt been into double figures for a couple of weeks as far as i remember.

Reporting Live From Westport
Mark

[spwill]

Good to have those weather reports from Westport Mark.

[Nev]

Thought I'd move the comments above to a general thread, as it looks as if we could do with one about now and they don't exactly relate to the Subtropical low to pass north of NZ this weekend thread, which at this stage is looking more like another potentially serious event for the North Island. If anyone however wants to start a thread relating to events further south or anything else for that matter, please don't hesitate. Otherwise, day to day obs/discussion etc welcome here.

P.S. Back to another cold night here, 4°C atm after about 10°C last night.

[mikestormchaser]

Well what a beautiful couple of days, in the sunshine for Christchurch!! its been very welcome.
Infact its first time i have been to hot to work in a jersey in a long long time \
This weekend doesn't look good now with low precipitation and the 500 THK at around 528 from what i can see.
Good to have you back aswel Mark, when will we see some photos up?

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Yes, here are photos as promised! Plenty of snow, rain and sunshine, along with fog and frosts! Unfortunately having trouble with a couple of fog pics that were in a straight line half way down the mountain looked really cool, also couple of videos of the torrential rain and the snow through the lewis and arthurs pass as well which i need to edit to put onto you tube in which will post a link. Good to be back! Wednesday and Thursday (today) were glorious days in Westport, warm and no wind. The arthurs pass pics were taken today on the way home! 2 Days after the snow so one can only imaging just how deep it was at the time with the quanities still evident in the pics

[gllitz]

Yes, welcome back to CHCH, Mark...excellent pics!!

[Storm Struck]

Fantastic photo's Mark was the first one at the summit of Arthurs Pass? when i was up there about this time last year it was deep about 35cm but that certainly looks alot deeper there.
It was that deep and soft that it was impossible to board down on as you just sunk into the snow, got to love the snow drifts through the township though.
Look forward to the video clips.

[mikestormchaser]

Yeah that's right, we were up there aye, i would of thought that looked as deep as it shows in the pics though this time last year.
It would of been the most snow i had seen on the ground, look forward to videos too mark.
Let us know when there up.

cheers

[spwill]

Looks like cool SouthWesterlies and showers for the Bledisloe Cup game at Eden Park this Saturday. Perhaps not the best weather for running rugby but some home advantage for the All Blacks

[Ice Maiden]

Hi Everyone, we have just returned from a few days in Twizel and surrounding area. It was -4C hoar frost/fog when we reached Omarama on Friday morning and stayed that way in Twizel until yesterday when the sun broke through. We headed through to Lake Tekapo on Saturday and got above the fog layer and had a glorious day in sunshine and a balmy 1C! Yesterday we drove through to Mt Cook where the temps hovered around 2C most of the day and as you can see from the photos there is quite a bit of snow still laying from last weeks falls.

[Ice Maiden]

and here are a few more. Should just mention we got down to about -9C on Friday and Saturday nights I believe in Twizel - well according to my car temp reading and it seems pretty acurate. Was very cold anyhow lol! Today when we left chains were needed through Burkes Pass heading from Tekapo to Timaru but we opted to head through the Waitaki Valley instead and it was clear and calm 4C

[Andy]

Hey great pics.

[spwill]

Excellent photo's.
A feature of this winter has been the persistence of the cold weather but no big snow storms so far.

[RWood]

Just a reminder of a cold time from an old post, re July 1968 -

"... The snowfalls on the last 4 days of June on the high country of both islands and to low levels in the South Island persisted for the first 4 days of July...Frosty conditions, especially during the first half of the month, allowed little opportunity for the snow to melt over the greater part of the South Island. On the hills to the SW of Mossburn at an altitude of about 2000ft the depth was reported as 2 ft, and 10 ft in the drifts, and it remained frozen there for 3 weeks"

"Very severe conditions were experienced, even at quite low altitudes where snow cover persisted. For example, Tara Hills at 1600 ft (488M) had snow lying on the ground the whole month, never less than 5.5 inches in depth. The mean temp of 23.2F (-4.9C) was the lowest ever recorded in New Zealand below an altitude of 3000 ft. On 8 days the temperature failed to reach 32F (0C), the lowest maximum being 20F (-6.7C) on the 14th. The air temperature fell below 0F (-17.8C) on the 6th, 7th and 14th"

[Vertigo]

twizel always seems to be covered in frost and fog when i see it

im noticing a small and tight rotation on the rain radar near taranaki, anyone else see it?

edit: heres the pic from metservice

[Tornado Tim]

Indeed Vertigo,
I can see a tiny "Hook" but does it hold any significance?, is another story.

[NZstorm]

Impressive winter photos.

spwill wrote

Looks like cool SouthWesterlies and showers for the Bledisloe Cup game at Eden Park this Saturday.

The forecast 500mb temperature for early Saturday evening is -29C which means there is the chance of a thunderstorm with hail along with the cold blustery showers. Also looks to be a thunderstorm risk Friday evening although this looks low atm.

[NZstorm]

twizel always seems to be covered in frost and fog when i see it

Twizel averages 176 days with ground frost a year. The mean daily winter minimum air temperature is -3.3C with a daily average of -6.2C on the grass. Perhaps NZ coldest town.

[Manukau heads obs]

with the NW wind change here this evening, its now 13C here at 7pm, max for the day
some warm air that has come across from OZ

[spwill]

A warm evening for Auckland, 14C, dewpoint 13C.

[southerly-hunter]

Make the most of that warm evening, it's 1 here in Dunedin, just heating up my wheatbag and about to brace myself down the cold hallway to bed

[Manukau heads obs]

I see Ricky is now on 14.2C at 9:16pm
sure is different to other nights so far this winter!

[spwill]

The Airport has gone from 3C this morning to 15C currently, heavy shower here just now.
edit, shower lasted 2mins but radar shows a few around the Ak area.

[Tornado Tim]

I have just set my daily high at night time, LOL.

[Michael]

All models look Terrible for Auckland Saturday onwards.