Fronts & T-storms over North Island - Oct 18-20

[tgsnoopy]

Had one bolt out of nowhere in a shortlived heavy shower at Edgecumbe this afternoon. Hit a nearby tree and gave me more than a little fright. Nothing else observed by me, but others have reported single large CG's today.

[NZstorm]

Thunder heard here at 6.15am.

The upper cold pool sure shows up on sat pic. The cold air is supportive of isolated lightning strikes and small hail.
Daytime heating will lift instability/CAPE to 500j/kg over the upper NI which should boost shower activity. Isolated heavy thundery falls of small hail might be possible this afternoon if some localised convergence can occur. But there won't be any sea breezes today.

[Vertigo]

impressive rain radar loop at the moment - very evident tightly wound low. would not be surprised to hear of tornadoes in the taranaki region.

[David]

Definitely some heavy showers around this afternoon, it was torrential for a time in the city around 1pm, I'd guess 4-5mm within half an hour....only 2mm in Howick since midday though.

[KiwiWeather]

Rain, hail, thunder and lightning just hit here.

[David]

Looks like we have some convergence which will help the thunder chances...WNW at Brian's place near the west coast, NE breeze here

edit: and less than 10mins later its gone NW.

[KiwiWeather]

"and less than 10 minutes later its gone"

Ditto, nothing hung around here terribly long either, but there is a lot of low cloud around at the moment.

[NZstorm]

yes, not the convergence today. This type of set up in December would be more fruitful. Observed very heavy precip/small hail about 3pm in Mt Wellington.

[Manukau heads obs]

was at botany downs with the kids to watch a movie
sure was heavy that shower at 1pm
snapped this CB after we came out of the movies...
I also see they are starting to string up the wires onto the new pylons out whitford way too..

[Nev]

As shown on TVNZ, the Manawatu Standard has a more cropped pic of the funnel-cloud over Palmerston North at 4.25pm this arvo...

'Tornado seen above city'

[Manukau heads obs]

low center passing over us here now...wind has gone NNE
heavy rain band passing over ....more so to the north of here...heads up auckland city area...

[Michael]

I say it will go in the 1 oclock to 8 oclock position ie NE-E-SE-S-SW over the next 12 hours rather via west.

[bmo]

Think it will just pass off the coast here.

[Nev]

Just in case anyone missed last night's TVNZ weather, here's the pic of a waterspout off the Taranaki coast on Wednesday evening (possibily around the same time as the funnel over Palmerston North?)...
.

[Manukau heads obs]

nice one

[03Stormchaser]

My brother is down from Palmerston North atm and mentioned to me about a "conical cloud " he saw on Wednesday afternoon. Matches up with the article from stuff.