Canterbury Thunderstorms - 14th December 2009

[Storm Struck]

Haha there goes some thunder here now , after some heavy rain mixed with hail.
I took a drive out behind the airport and down mcleans island road, sat and watched a storm develope which was quietly rotating at the bottom and plenty of IC and CC strikes observed.
I then headed inland up the west coast road about 15 minutes and struck the storm with very heavy rain which turned to hail jaffa sized and slightly bigger wacking against my windscreen.
Slowed me right down and the surface flooding was amazing too.
Stopped ahead of the cell to take photos near the Agriseeds place, then came back home.
Photos to follow asap, sounds like its not over yet .

[MoorfNZ]

Jase - I stopped by Agriseeds, too, where the sloping road was white batteries ran out though...

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

No hail here but steady rain.
I think things are dwindling now and no more to come. Can't see TC as now it is 8/8 Ns.
I say "Good -Up" for MetService for this weather event for today and nice to follow the Severe Thunderstorm warning scenario based on the Rakaia radar.

JohnGaul
NZThS

[melja]

Haha rakaia radar, cant rely equipment when you need it not much use to anyone when it doesnt go.

[Lawrence]

Yeah,steady moderate rain,with the odd heavy burst evry now and then. Very Gray,if it was cold enough you would be sure it was going to snow.

[MoorfNZ]

Grey and no rain or wind here now... roads and fields are steaming... all quiet on the western front...

[Lawrence]

Rain rate at a steady 8mm/hr,not sure how long it will keep this up.

[Lacertae]

MoorfNZ, you should have stayed at home as there was a funnel cloud, possibly tornado (I need to check my pics) in a field just south of Waddington !
I eat something and I'll try to post 1 or 2 shots.

What a chase guys, what a chase !!!

[MoorfNZ]

Ohhhhh noooooo - I only went out for 20 mins!

[metmum]

Still raining here and getting chilly.....time to light a fire I think.

[Thunder]

Ahh sigh....

Went out chasing and saw some good cloud structure, got some hail and heavy rain. Saw some nice lightning to! But for the most part I think we were in the wrong places.

Went inland towards Hororata and spent most of the time round there. We got under a nice cell that came over from say Methven perhaps where it first formed then went over us before moving somewhere between Sheffield and Darfield I'm thinking. We should've stayed with it as it looks to of produced the goods, but we heard vibes of more interesting stuff to the south and started heading that way when we realised why on earth were we doing this by the time we got there anything that was there would've moved on! Grr... So we drove back towards Hororata but the cell we were under had moved further north by that stage.

So we pondered and then just drove towards state highway 1 from Hororata and caught a 2nd line that was moving up from the south, was one big long gust front and we thought "oh no, it's over".... Southerly came through and well yeah.....lots of rain. Once that occurs it's hard to see what's going on as it's just one big murky cloud, looks like some nice lightning going off inland though as I speak. Sucks having no quality mobile data, I was going to get a laptop very soon but held off pending other things...

So the lesson is which I should know by now, if your under something that looks good stick with it despite something ages away looking or sounding apparently more interesting (probably was with accounts of large hail in Temuka are anything to go by, but that's the luck of the draw!).

Images from new camera I wouldn't say are great at this stage colour wise despite the higher pixel count, did have it on auto function mind you but my nikon did a little better on it's auto. Will have to perhaps invest in a better lense and use more of the manual functions. This pic below is us under a cloud that Ben got good results with later on, darn powerlines! Am looking forward to Ben's pics!

[Vertigo]

so that storm did produce a tornado, or at least a funnel - fascinating. the rotation was clearly visible on the radar loops.

[Skywatcher]

Gave up trying to work at 3:15 with the lightning tracker beeping like mad. Stopped north of Aylesbury and recorded some lightning to the NW-N, mostly ICs then a few CGs. Moved to between Aylesbury and Burnham on Wards Rd and took this pano of the big gust front looking towards Rolleston (it was a straight line but the wide angle makes it look curved). Recorded more lightning on video including a lot more CGs this time - missed a closer double CG while I was adjusting the settings

After getting XT mobile broadband I completely forgot to put the laptop in the car

[Lacertae]

Actually it produced 2 funnels between 2:30 and 2:40pm (accurate times later), the second one being potentially the tornado (need to look closely at the footage). I've got pictures of the 1st funnel and the 2nd one is on a HD video which I will deal with tonight after work or tomorrow morning.
I didn't enhance the shots much as I have to go to work in a few minutes.

funnel1.jpg

funnel2.jpg

[Lawrence]

Awsome pictures everyone, well done.

[MoorfNZ]

Wow, Steven and Lacertae, they are amazing shots

[David]

This thread has been cool to keep up with, good stuff guys
Lovin the pics too!

[metmum]

Fab pictures

[Thunder]

Great stuff Ben! Am loving the funnel pics and future video footage to boot! Here's another few shots of the storm that formed to produce the funnel while we were initially near it then as it headed off to where Ben was where he got the funnel! These pics I'm actually rather happy with

[Storm Struck]

Awesome shot of the funnel cloud Lacertae, you really need a good eye for them.
Thunder has just quietened down here now but was rumbling and groaning away to the NE from here.
Photo's here they are .

Cell developing near Yaldhurst.jpg

Haill 001.jpg

hail 002.jpg

Hail 003.jpg

Hail 004.jpg

[Storm Struck]

And a few more photo's after my drive through the hail.

hail 005.jpg

hail 006.jpg

[03Stormchaser]

Awesome pics guys, love any photo of a canterbury funnel/tornado cloud!!
We should have stuck to the base that Ben did get those funnel pics, as we had earlier been on it then thought things looked better else were..... always next time!

[tich]

Rain out near Akaroa from about 4.30pm, but no thunder or hail.

[DT-NZ]

XTREME!!! thunderstorm photographs... WOW!!!

Loved reading those great ground and chase reports from all of you, fantastic, awesome!!!

Great work guys!!!! and gals!! awesome...

[DT-NZ]

Actually it produced 2 funnels between 2:30 and 2:40pm (accurate times later), the second one being potentially the tornado (need to look closely at the footage). I've got pictures of the 1st funnel and the 2nd one is on a HD video which I will deal with tonight after work or tomorrow morning.
I didn't enhance the shots much as I have to go to work in a few minutes.

AWESOME MATE!!!! you got those funnel's... YEA!!! you caught TWO of them...

Cheer's Lacertae - what a day eh!! I'm just fired up and happy for you!! k, take care.