Canterbury thunderstorms 30 December 2009

[Andrew Massie]

Hi All,

Better start another one.. MS giving a moderate warning of squally thunderstorms over most of Canterbury tomorrow afternoon. Lacertae and I both looking to head out..! I'm being extremely careful tomorrow, got a 9yr old apprentice stormchaser with me!

Andrew

[Richard]

Good luck Andrew,would ya head north if it looks favorable?,the NW wind we've had all day 2day would need to bugger off to give any chance 2morrow

[Michael]

This week is similar to the second week of the month,the ridge looks as it will build in quite quickly.

[DT-NZ]

I'm being extremely careful tomorrow, got a 9yr old apprentice stormchaser with me!

I could not think of a better person in the whole orld for a young apprentice stormchaser to be with than you YEA!!! ok... take care, safe journeys... all of you... DT

[NZstorm]

Looks a weak set up tomorrow for Canterbury. Low level flow will be SW from early in the day which is not good. Pity as the upper air looks cold and I like the 60kt wind at 500mb. Another issue too would be the low tropopause height which has any convection that develops topping out under 6km. Well thats according to todays gfs run anyway. Best spot for storms looks offshore.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Yes, looks iffy about tomorrow but there also looks likely there could be a bit of a trigger

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Andrew Massie]

Yes, looks iffy about tomorrow but there also looks likely there could be a bit of a trigger

JohnGaul
NZThS

Do you chase, John, or do you watch from your roof?

[Lacertae]

I might go north of the Waimakariri, may be north of the Ashley River if it start to look interesting.

[Andrew Massie]

Good luck Andrew,would ya head north if it looks favorable?,the NW wind we've had all day 2day would need to bugger off to give any chance 2morrow

I won't be going too far, Richard. I'll just see what develops and head in that direction.. Watching...!

[Richard]

North Canterbury has a mod risk i see now,the 60-70km NW thats blowing here is coming up against an opposing wind flow forming some promising looking clouds to the SE.
Fingers crossed

[Captain Salty]

Noob report - As seen from top of the port hills a few minutes ago, pretty much inline with the 12pm rain radar. Some towering cumulous south east of the peninsula but heading out to sea.

[Weather Watcher]

A couple of weak thunderstorms between Ashburton and Temuka at 12:30pm.

[Lacertae]

I think I'll go for a wee sleep instead ...

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Nothing much to report from here just some good steady rain.
No Andrew, I don't go on the roof,now, that was in the Selwyn Street days. I do go out and about from here to 'have a look' rather than do the 'gogogo' chasing like what the American storm chasers do.

JohnGaul
NZThS

[snowstormwatcher]

Nothing much here few showers on the ranges just come back from central otago stromy down there this morning.

[Richard]

yet another fizzier here even at 3.00 it looked very black and menacing but ended up poured down instead

[tich]

Just a spell of rain in Chch, no thunder or hail. Temperatures did plummet with the rain - Jeff's station was as low as 10C at one stage.

[Weetbicks]

We had a couple of brief hail showers here in Invercargill today, pretty small tho.

[TonyT]

11mm from steady showers here

[Richard]

Ended up tipping out 16mm out from last night's rain

[Andrew Massie]

Well...! That didn't come to anything, although Karen Olsen insisted on One News that the East Coast of Canterbury had thunderstorms..! Didn't chase, as there wasn't any reason to leave home! One very disappointed apprentice stormchaser here now.. But.. 1st lesson... Weather can be unpredictable!

[Richard]

yer where were those thunderstorms other than a couple out to sea.

[Weather Watcher]

There were several weak thunderstorms over the Canterbury Plains yesterday afternoon, and also one near Amberly/Motanau Beach, however they were embedded in areas of rain, so may have been hard to see. Radar showed some small hail as well, up to about 5mm diameter.

[spwill]

Yes thunderstorms were weak, Cb clouds with just one or two lightning strikes, was expected due to lousy surface conditions as NZstorm mentioned on Tuesday.

[Andrew Massie]

Looks a weak set up tomorrow for Canterbury. Low level flow will be SW from early in the day which is not good. Pity as the upper air looks cold and I like the 60kt wind at 500mb. Another issue too would be the low tropopause height which has any convection that develops topping out under 6km. Well thats according to todays gfs run anyway. Best spot for storms looks offshore.

On the money AGAIN!! I'm not worthy..!