Sept 4th Canterbury Thunderstorms

[NZstorm]

What got me is from where i was sitting the storm looked exactly like a Meso, a New Zealand large cake tin storm something you rarely see here and something i have never seen before blew me away .

Lincolnian's photos seem to show this structure. I got the impression there could be a meso in those photos but they don't show the whole storm. The 4cm hail points to a meso as well.

[Tornado Tim]

Lovely shots Ben! Well done.....

Yes Hail of that size would generally indicate some sort of mechanism to keep the hail up in the cloud for a longer period of time.

Very surprising that no severe thunderstorm warnings were issued on it nor an updated Thunderstorm outlook at least.

[spwill]

Spectacular photos/clips, spectacular storm.

No severe thunderstorm warning for this storm at metservice.com, their severe thunderstorm warning system is unreliable.

[bmo]

This the most zoomed out picture I have

[Willoughby]

Incredible!! Here's an amazing stacked photo by Rob Dickinson from New Brighton, grabbed off Facebook.
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 5574_o.jpg
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =1&theater

[TonyT]

My brother who lives near the top of Huntsbury hill reported a brisk E-NE breeze for at least an hour prior to the storm, the wind being humid enough to form misty scrappy clouds about the higher parts of the hills. As the storm approached he watched these clouds get sucked into the advancing CB cloud. So, there must have been a substantial low level moisture feed into the advancing CB.

[03Stormchaser]

that stacked photo is nuts!

[mikestormchaser]

I went out chasing with Aaron, we really didnt have to go far at all as we sat at the back of lincoln, south of Christchurch.
Turnd out to be the best spot as we watched the stroms developed and move over.
I have never seen such awesome display of lightning before on the best storm night i have encounted in a long long time!
Unfortunately i couldnt take alot of photos as my digital camera was playing up however have alot of video clips of the storm and have alot of lightning to show from that witch im sure Aaron will upload to his website.
I did however take these two photos, the 1st one i have a CG in the background, now this was just manual handling a basic digital camera out of share LUCK!! so i am very stoaked about it
The 2nd one clearly shows mesocylconic rotation with a flying saucer like base.
Enjoy!

[03Stormchaser]

Looks like it was a beast of a storm Mike, sucks im stuck on the otherside of the world! Looking forward to Aarons report when he chucks it online.

[katipo]

Some storm pics taken from Cashmere around 6:30pm-ish.

IMGP9143.jpg

IMGP9145.jpg

IMGP9122.jpg

IMGP9130.jpg

[03Stormchaser]

Great to see so many Lightning photos from Christchurch, now we need to see more from other cities!!

[Willoughby]

BRILLIANT last shot there Katipo!! Did you shoot this in .raw? If so, I would definetely adjust and increase the recovery to help with the over-exposure.

A very solid rain free base and updraft there Mike.

[Thunder]

Amazing pictures from alot of people, heaps of people. Ben and other fellows they are great photo's you've got there. That guy from new Brighton literally has a cracker.

I've got some photo's up on my website now, will compile a more complete report in a day or two when I get some time plus a video clip. Would've been nice to put something up earlier but had work strait after the storms finished so it's been a long road......

Hail wasn't overally big near us (10 to 15mm, although not bad compared to some storms), sat just east of Lincoln and didn't really have to move. Didn't really want to have to fight to get back through town to chase the storm that way as another cell moved up but unfortunately didn't get any lightning photographs from it.

Definately saw the rotation and a small funnel, will have to review video footage to make sure of the funnel though. It was only brief. Mind you it was right above us so hard to see funnelly things when your looking strait up at it, more or less looks like a swirl.

Cheers
Aaron

[jamie]

Awesome! Well done everyone. Some great shots there. Looks certain to have been a rotating up draft there for a bit.

Very poor performance for MS to not warn a storm like that. That's the sort of storm that does need a warning.

[Nev]

Nice pics guys!

Below are a few more links with videos and photos, including this rather pertinent quote ...

'Lightning lights Christchurch sky' - The Press (Stuff)
Last updated 00:24 05/09/2012

...Met Service weather forecaster Allister Gorman said hailstones larger than 20 millimetres put the storm in the "severe" category.

"Thunderstorms were on the radar for the Canterbury plains but we weren't sure whether it would hit the city . . . obviously it has and that would be a first in quite a while, I would imagine."

There were about 300 lightning flashes in Canterbury, Gorman said.

"It's the sort of storm we would typically see in the summer but it's been a while since the city of Christchurch had one," he said.

'Storm puts out the lights in Christchurch (+ video)' - NZ Herald

'Huge hail, lightning hits Christchurch' - One News

[melja]

That artical has changed then because he first said this.

"Weather forecaster Allister Gorman said hailstones of up to 15 millimetres had showered down on Christchurch.

If hailstones were larger than 20mm the storm was classed as severe, he said.

[Orion]

I looked at the rain radar before leaving home about 5.30pm last evening and what I saw then heading for Christchurch was enough to make me check the thunderstorm warnings; the warning for this area was enough to have me disconnect the computer & gadgets before leaving, and I did have brief concern [re possible hail] about leaving my car outside at Westerfield, though by that time (6pm) it was obvious that the storm was not coming in that direction.
It was certainly a very ugly-looking system and there are some great photos above.

[Richard]

Awesome! Well done everyone. Some great shots there.

Yes i agree,thanks everyone,ive enjoyed viewing them

[spwill]

Great to see so many Lightning photos from Christchurch, now we need to see more from other cities!!

Send me a storm good work by Chch folk

[rjd]

Incredible!! Here's an amazing stacked photo by Rob Dickinson from New Brighton, grabbed off Facebook.
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 5574_o.jpg
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =1&theater

Hey cheers! better seen over on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zarphag/7928457246/

Mad storm, I was all over the place earlier ended up with the shot of the night from home!

[Michael]

apart from that night a month or so back,been no lightning in auckland,here a fresh westerly/overcast around 13c btw in wanganui today hence the no sw as theyre quite rare here,

Great to see so many Lightning photos from Christchurch, now we need to see more from other cities!!

Send me a storm good work by Chch folk

[Razor]

My brother who lives near the top of Huntsbury hill reported a brisk E-NE breeze for at least an hour prior to the storm, the wind being humid enough to form misty scrappy clouds about the higher parts of the hills. As the storm approached he watched these clouds get sucked into the advancing CB cloud. So, there must have been a substantial low level moisture feed into the advancing CB.

I observed that from the Cashmere Hills at the same time and said to my wife that it was likely to be feeding a monster storm. Turned out to be beyond my wildest expectations!

[moylanr]

Severe hail there but no severe warning was issued on MetService website

Did anyone forecast it?

[TonyT]

Severe hail there but no severe warning was issued on MetService website

Did anyone forecast it?

Unforecastable more than about an hour or maybe two ahead. It had looked like heavy showers on Tuesday evening for several days prior, and MS did put out a general TS prediction earlier in the afternoon once activity was ramping up in North and South Canty. But its (clearly) not possible to predict that intensity of storm development and its exact location until its started developing.

[Tornado Tim]

They should have issued a warning on that storm, the echos coming back from that storm should have been enough due to hail being that large.
Alisters comments are very strange, he classified hail as severe (>2cm) then why on earth didnt he issue a warning on it.

Top shots everyone, well done