General January Weather

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Lovely day here the best in 3 weeks. 24 degrees with a 12km/h SW and a dewpoint of 16 at the moment so very high dewpoint for Christchurch. I was surprised it was a light SW here as oppose to the NE. Not complaining though!! Hardly a cloud in the sky!

Make that 25.2 now with dewpoint of 16.4. 8km/h NW. So must be variable winds.

[Storm Struck]

Yes the SW wind this morning was a good change, it blew the low cloud away instead of being the typical onshore NE.
However it did return later once the NE came back.
Some good development again inland around 3pm from what i could see, not sure what has eventuated though will have to wait and see.

[Richard]

looking towards Hanmer Springs



!0 min later

[Captain Salty]

a strike just north of chch http://www.skywatcher.net.nz/weather/StormVue.html

[Storm Struck]

Thats coming from a thunderstorm just near Hanmer Springs, the one which Richard took photo's of.
Has any thunderstorms fired over central otago yet? bcoz they not only have a high risk today but a low risk of severe thunderstorms.

[Richard]

There's no way the strike came from where it is shown on that map CS,thats where i am.I went up to the top of the my road to get a better shoot of it and it looks to be over the maintains to the north of Hanmer Springs,the one thing about this storm that is unusal is i have never seen storms move from east to west as this one has

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

What a stunning warm evening, the sun was still baking at 8pm, however the low cloud is rolling in from the north now. No wind to speak of. All the guys down at cricket were saying it was almost too hot but i think that was due to us not being use to the big yellow being out for more than 2 hours this year!

[Captain Salty]

at least the activity NW of kaikoura matches up with the rain radar

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Nice pictures there Richard.
You could see those Cu congestus forms and a few 'fists' from here to the NW through the haze, better looked at with sunglasses on.
Here's an interesting picture of a variation of KH cloud looking south from here this this evening.

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Richard]

yer that same kind of cloud rolled over this way too John

[DT-NZ]

Morning,

Well, weve had no significant rainfall amounts in the DB area here in the FN region - still outside it's a mix of blue sky, sun, wind and chunky Cu's chugging over the bay heading W.

[NZstorm]

You get some very nice storm shots from your location Richard.

Looks good for inland thunderstorms over the SI today from Southland northward.

[Richard]

Thanks Steven, looking good again inland,had to go sopping in Rangiora this morning,even before we left clouds were building,the photo below is near Mt Gray,got home and its 29C so there plenty of heat to help with cloud development.
Guna be a interesting afternoon ... i hope

[Andrew Massie]

WICKED photo! Building!!!!

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Yeah, I got the same shot well, same cloud but different perspective from here.
Unfortuantely CB forms were rather weak and the building 'fists' accompanying them were eventually falling down. Low cloud closing in so I can't see any more.
NB. Here are some pictures here:

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Richard]

Youre right John they have been growing all afternoon like that only to collapse back down again,but in the last hour there's one north of me but more west than yesterdays, that looks more organized and may become something worth watching.

Temperature hit 30 at 4.30

[Captain Salty]

same pattern of activity over nelson lakes as yesterday

from 2pm http://satellite.landcareresearch.co.nz ... d29010.jpg
shows some build up inland canterbury too

[Confusedcious]

Can one of the gurus enlighten me as to what on earth is up with this Canterbury weather this month????

We moved back to our hometown of chch from the UK last April and were looking forward to this summer but it has to be one of the worst summers in my memory.

The last 3 weeks has been almost solid overcast and cold weather and this is meant to be smack bang in the middle of summer??

[Michael]

Lack of northwesterlies,southerly type elnino.

Can one of the gurus enlighten me as to what on earth is up with this Canterbury weather this month????

We moved back to our hometown of chch from the UK last April and were looking forward to this summer but it has to be one of the worst summers in my memory.

The last 3 weeks has been almost solid overcast and cold weather and this is meant to be smack bang in the middle of summer??

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

February is usually better but as this has been, as I predicted last July, a not much of a summery summer, so February or March probably won't be that much better but then who knows.

JohnGaul
NZThS

[RWood]

Can one of the gurus enlighten me as to what on earth is up with this Canterbury weather this month????

We moved back to our hometown of chch from the UK last April and were looking forward to this summer but it has to be one of the worst summers in my memory.

The last 3 weeks has been almost solid overcast and cold weather and this is meant to be smack bang in the middle of summer??

Dullest summers at Ch'ch city/Aero sites:

1937-8 456 hrs
1959-60 490
1944-5 494
1965-6 512
1957-8 517
2001-2 520

{Dec 1937-Jan 1938 hot and sunny over most of NI and part of SI but the hot sultry Feb 1938 fired up storms and some very big rainfalls in the north, while the S &SW of the SI and Central Otago/Lakes were in a protracted dry spell}

[NZstorm]

A bit of lightning showing up over inland North Otago now from that isolated cell on the radar.

[jamie]

fantastic day today. warm and a nice breeze to make things bare able. the dew point was slightly lower today too which was nice for a change. the cows certainly enjoyed the change in the weather as did i.

[dogmelon]

How can I stop this Northeasterly from blowing all the time? I've all but had it with living in chc...

[Captain Salty]

How can I stop this Northeasterly from blowing all the time? I've all but had it with living in chc...

perhaps you could induce a volcanic offshore island to the NE so we'd get a fohn effect from it