General December Weather

[Storm Struck]

Yes but rather muggy when the sun came out, was quite glad when the cloud increased later on.
Looks like some decent rain coming in the next day or two, maybe 20-30mm from Christchurch northwards and its also very stationary high pressured system so wont be moving anywhere fast.
Might be some relief for us into next week although a fair way out could see some storm chances pop up again hopefully

[Tornado Tim]

Thunder, yes!!!!!

[jamie]

Man that cell is tiny. How did that do a clap?

[jamie]

I take that back. It's actually got some good lift to it and even has a nice lowering

[Tornado Tim]

Its thundered around 10x over here. The lightning was inside the anvil blow off.
Its actually still going off the boltek is clicking (but they are very weak and not enough to produce thunder anymore, yet...)

[Tornado Tim]

bucketing down here, huge raindops! breaching 100mm/hr at times
owh here we go, I love that I can do this now

[jamie]

Just equalled my all time rain rate. Had tiny hail and now listening to an amazing sounds that isn't stopping. This cell has some juice. It's jut constant rumbling

[Tornado Tim]

Crap huge CG flash of pink and bang! Good CG

[dan]

I'm out chasing yeeew

[Tornado Tim]

Spoke to Chris on the Severe Weather Desk @ metservice, the tops of this thunderstorm is 10KM

[jamie]

Was pretty good and unexpected. I had given up hope. Got 6mm in 4 mins. Got to 3.4mm per min. Tiny hail. Lots of thunder.

What I find amazing is the localization of these. I was in a tin shed getting sporadic drops. For a good 2 minutes the shed 30m away had heavy rain which I could hear and see on its roof. Our neighbour 3.5km down the road had 15mm. I could tell we missed the best. It's all over now. Lightning died off quickly after it passed here

[Tornado Tim]

Here are some shots of what was the incoming storm.

[dan]

damn you beat me to it. Here it is just before it hit me

[Richard]

Oh wow you lucky buggers enjoy

[jamie]

Wasn't much visually that storm. But I'll take it. Tomorrow looks like a slim chance again

[Manukau heads obs]

good stuff guys

[Achten]

The cell that developed behind the earlier one today scored a hit over us. Started of with large hail 20 - 30mm which gave me a hell of a fright. Falling very sparodically I was in the kitchen and thought what the hell is that noise as every so often one would hit the iron on the roof. As they hit the ground they bounced about one metre. Turned to smaller hail there after with heavy rain and what seemed continuous thunder forabout 30 minutes. Very interesting to follow the development on the radar and how quickly the cell developes. The improved Met Service radar has been a plus for me today. Well done Met Service on the updated radar and severe Thunderstorm forcast.

[NZstorm]

The thunderstorms tomorrow over the central and eastern North Island should be more active than today with a severe risk. Looks like a beefy upper level system inbound. Pity it wasn't more up this way.

Thanks for the reports/photos.

[Manukau heads obs]

that sounds like it must have been a supercell, to get big hail like that

[snowstormwatcher]

Nice photos.

Heavy drizzle here along with a cold easterly, A change from the fine warm days we have been having over the last week.

[NZstorm]

I think somewhere will get nailed tomorrow, maybe it'll be Hawkes Bay again.

[jamie]

What was of interest today was the wind slowly swung n nw w and when it finally got to a true west the cells finally fired. Must have been a w ne convergence maybe?

Yea tomorrow looks better for severe. Much colder upper air. Which it was going to be a western Waikato event. haven't had a decent western Waikato event for years. Somewhere central NI or the hawksbay looks the deal.

[borris89]

Found this video of the storm in Central HB today, some good hail in there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ack6MrxPw4M

[NZstorm]

Thanks for the link borris89. Decent sized hail.

[NZstorm]

Quite moist here this morning with dp 18C, some drizzle.