Thunder across NZ - Dec 20-26

[David]

Raining here now. Ardmore (Sth Auckland) has had 11mm and rising fast.

[David]

Very heavy rain now

[NZstorm]

Glaciated tops on those E/SE Auckland clouds.

[bmo]

Severe Thunderstorm Watch for Auckland and Waikato
http://www.metservice.com/national/warn ... torm-watch
And a article about the reported flooding in South Auckland
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-n ... r-Auckland

[Tornado Tim]

Not sure Hamilton or Western areas will get any showers today, they seem to be mixing out in the WSW steer.
No seabreeze front today (as of yet...)

CB Incus to the East of me around Matamata atm, isolated strikes coming from it.
Convection to NE of me around Paeroa isnt hitting the tropopause so the cap (shown in the sounding) seems to be limiting the convection to its full extent, which would inhibit any decent lapse rates (to get more sparking going..).

The Thunderstorm Watch issued I believe should classified as a Flash Flood Watch (or something similar to that extent) as the convection is no where near severe but the condition around the convection could potentially be severe (slow moving thundershowers etc.)

[Richard]

gees spwill thats a great looking photo,
No good looking Cb's around here though the ones to the SE that snowstormwatcher has mentioned do look half decent

[KiwiWeather]

Driving home from work, you could clearly see the line to the east and it looked amazing. I just wish I had my camera on me.

No rain here at present but geesh it is very humid.

[spwill]

Shower line has been east of here, photo.

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

WOAH! Just saw on TV 3 on Breaking news what looked like raging river going through someones property in South Auckland!!

[KiwiWeather]

Cheers SPWill and as always, you are so on the ball with your pictures and the quality (ditto as always) is just superb.

[Tornado Tim]

Flip, I love what Mike said on the Weather on 3 tonight: Showers in Auckland developed due to the suns cooling heat, LOL hahahahaha

[bmo]

Pretty good(bad) flooding being sjown on tv3 now.

[David]

Just had another heavy shower adding 5mm to the 13mm that fell earlier. A nice watering for the garden.

[jamie]

waikato surge finally cranking into gear. a bit late today but should see some good downpours in the waikato. MS have shifted their focus south the the SE waikato.

awesome video on 3news website of the flash flood in auckland

[Tornado Tim]

MODIS AQUA satellite shows nicely the two convergence lines, one out in Auckland and the other in eastern Waikato

Starting to get darker and darker to my east with the seabreeze front finally pushing in and changing steering flow from SW:

MODIS Image courtesy of NASA

[spwill]

The Waikato storms were further east today, some very nice storms through eastern Waikato early evening, shower activity is looking much weaker now. I was going to head down into Waikato late afternoon but was distracted by the east Auckland weather.

[Tornado Tim]

Here are some shots of the incoming convergence line on the sea breeze front, winds promptly turned NE when it hit.

Very nice structure shots of the showers to the NE:
Notice the saturated inflow with tail and the flanking line out west ahead of the cell.

[NZstorm]

Can still see cb on the horizon to the south.

[Storm Struck]

Nice photos guys, the radars are fantastic at times like these with isolated cells much easier to track for those chasing.
Plenty of CU about inland again today and some weaker stuff over the port hills, there was a CB to the N-NW around 6pm Richard may have been what you were referring to.
This topic may need to extend out until Boxing day i think as it looks like the set up will remain, Boxing day looks like a decent set up for inland Otago perhaps.

[Thunder]

Nice to see a few storms again. I contemplated the possibilities late last night (early morning) and figured it wasn't worth going anywhere so that worked out about right. But there was some nice Cu on the ranges. Thanks for the photos guys, great to see!

[mikestormchaser]

Wow some fantastic pictures of detail and structure guys! good effort! i to have noticed a few build ups inland but they look quite away inland!
The winds are a light N/NE here i have noticed some nice TCU in the SW early this morning.

[Richard]

They are not as far inland today Mike,they are building more over the foothills today,yesterday they were near the main divide

[Thunder]

Cloud buildups look stronger then yesterday but not really much happening with them, it's sort've spreading out now and weakening.

[NZstorm]

There was an isolated storm over central Otago the evening.

[Richard]

I know we are past the 20th -23th,maybe a separate thread needed ??

Anyway i'm liking what i'm seeing how the clouds are building this morning looking around the hills around from the north to the SW.