NZ Weather Forum

Temple Basin ski area:
"6th June. 1 metre of fresh snow has fallen around the Lodges."
http://www.templebasin.co.nz/

The MS said 50 to 100cm at the higher levels... Not bad.

After this dump of snow I think Heavy snow in Canterbury north of Ashburton is getting more common, 3 big dumps in the last 12 months while Dunedin,Otago and most of South Canterbury have pretty much escaped all 3 events.

Just been talking to some one up near Tekapo and there is 20cm of snow there with -8c.

All the snow is still there....only as hard as rock with ice every where else! Slipped at least a few times just getting to the mail box...still minus 4.4

yes -4.4 in my area to right now, completely iced up out there, not going anywhere anytime soon.
Always gets colder when sun comes up, not sure why exactly.
What a beautiful sight out there though, 10cm of snow out there, and trees coverd, none of it is melted. white as!!

yep just like a ice skating rink, electric fencing from the neighbours is stuffed collapsed over night as the snow got iced up...Don't think it will change much before midday

- 6 here woooooo

yep just dropped here to-5.5!

Yup!! still -1.3 here.. Christchurch has to be the coldest city in new zealand, and i will stick to what i beleive we are colder then dunners, dont know how that makes sence but we definately are or atleast the same in winter.

Always gets colder when sun comes up, not sure why exactly.

its because when the sun first comes up, its at such a low angle, its not replacing the heat still being lost too space.....
that does not start to balance out for half an hour or so after sunrise
also often the wind is less around sunrise/set

125cm in 20hrs at Craigieburn Valley Ski Area at 1260m asl. Probably one of the biggest 24hr accumulations we have seen. Very little wind at this elevation during the storm. Average 6cm/hr precip rates but precip rates would have been much higher at times.

mikestormchaser wrote:Yup!! still -1.3 here.. Christchurch has to be the coldest city in new zealand, and i will stick to what i beleive we are colder then dunners, dont know how that makes sence but we definately are or atleast the same in winter.

Ignoring cooler places than Dunedin (like Invercargill) - even taking Musselburgh (which over-represents Dunedin's warmth because of its relatively high night minima), Ch'ch Gardens and Musselburgh have the same JJA average (1971-2000; mean of JJA is (23.0/3)C). The average Dunedin location would be at least 0.4C cooler than Ch'ch Gardens in winter.

Still havent reached the positives yet. Minus 0.6. I see Jeff has just recorded 0.5mm in the last 10 mins Thats what I dont like about stations when they record rainfall from melted snow or heavy dues - can be deceiving!

RWood wrote: Ignoring cooler places than Dunedin (like Invercargill) - even taking Musselburgh (which over-represents Dunedin's warmth because of its relatively high night minima), Ch'ch Gardens and Musselburgh have the same JJA average (1971-2000; mean of JJA is (23.0/3)C). The average Dunedin location would be at least 0.4C cooler than Ch'ch Gardens in winter.

Dunedin has a lot of hill suburbs which I think would be similar to Musselburgh . Chch Airport temperatures will represent quite a large part of Chch, the outer western/southwestern suburbs.

125cm in 20hrs at Craigieburn Valley Ski Area at 1260m asl. Probably one of the biggest 24hr accumulations we have seen

Cool, so the 100cm predicitons were accurate for that area
(unlike what a certain member of this forum tried to claim )

Temperature has gone up to 10C now since a westerly breeze has come in, loads of melting going on ice falling down the trees splattering everywhere quite a sight really.
But the sun makes everything so much more picture perfect, might go out and take a few more photos.
Looks like a busy week ahead with fronts coming and going, snow to between 300-500m i think the pre NW will help to melt things abit more tomorrow morning.

As posted by Metservice on Twitter, NASA/MODIS satellite image showing snow cover this morning.

Larger sizes available: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/imag ... .terra.2km

1.4 degrees here at present;
sunny; not very much thaw in the snow-cover.
very picturesque.

3.8 degrees here and also at the airport. Sun is nice, no wind and still plenty of snow. It will still be here in the weekend. I notice Metservice saying 4.6mm in last hour for CHCH. Is this going to go down for monthly rainfall? How do they work this? In theory - since it is precipitation from yesterday in the form of snow melting I guess it should but it should go down and be added to yesterday and not for todays rainfall totals.

Hasn't warmed much for you guys,thought we were doing well to get to 6 deg here,but you are right Orion,not much of a thaw hey,also there's been a thin ground fog all afternoon,looks like something out of Siberia.
We'll hit freezing again even before the sun hits the hills i reckon tonight.

CHCH Weather Chaser wrote:3.8 degrees here and also at the airport. Sun is nice, no wind and still plenty of snow. It will still be here in the weekend. I notice Metservice saying 4.6mm in last hour for CHCH. Is this going to go down for monthly rainfall? How do they work this? In theory - since it is precipitation from yesterday in the form of snow melting I guess it should but it should go down and be added to yesterday and not for todays rainfall totals.

MetService seem to be having problems relaying some obs etc today, so I'd ignore that rainfall figure as it's probably an older reading.

High of 4 here today with an average temperature since midnight of -1. .. Currently 1.1 at the airport and 2.5 in Halswell.

Temp. has just dropped to -0.1 degrees.
I've covered the car with a blue tarp tonight to save defrosting windscreen etc. in the morning. [I hope ]

Great YouTube video showing the snow at Arthurs Pass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... X6jQoEo0Aw

Might not need it come 6am Orion especially if that NWer comes through around then, it seems my station is having a few temperature issues will have to investigate tomorrow it was flicking between 10C and 6C much the afternoon is currently 2C which would be about right.
That satelitte map is interesting you can see south along the coastline where no snow has fallen, perhaps this was the SE flow which remained strong on the coast there but also some land advection may have helped which i believe Banks Peninnsula did for the city and further north hence why theres snow at the coast from Christchurch northwards.
Something to keep note for the next advective event.
By the way does anyone know if John is back from Singapore yet?

The snow fell to sea level down on the Mid Canterbury coast but not as heavy as ChCh north.Less moisture down this way compared to Christchurch north,.Ashburton had 10cm of snow,would have been over 30 if that Tasman low had been positioned a little more south.