NZ Weather Forum

Some quite cold air to the far south today/tonight so with coastal onshore winds further north and those few showers sneaking up the coast there could be a small risk of some thunder/hail, more so around the coast near Birdlings and the peninsula tonight.

Not long home from work & finally the clouds have parted.. a blessing to see a snow capped Mt. Davy from my kitchen window! I have no idea when that happened, it hasn't been even remotely cold enough here for that.. maybe a few hundred metres above me but it's a lovely sight. Always guaranteed a snow dump during whitebait season

The METARS from both Auckland and Christchurch have all recently (last couple of weeks) switched to being AUTO only (even during the day) whilst Wellington has retained manual observations. Is there a reason for this......apart form cost cutting?

Simon Culling wrote:The METARS from both Auckland and Christchurch have all recently (last couple of weeks) switched to being AUTO only (even during the day) whilst Wellington has retained manual observations. Is there a reason for this......apart form cost cutting?

http://www.icao.int/APAC/Meetings/2013_ ... METARS.pdf

Going by that, Wellington should switch as well. Benefits are half-hourly updates with more consistent, objective data.

Thanks for that information Steven. Are METARS available for other NZ airports such as Dunedin, Queenstown, Hamilton etc.?

The only METARs that seem to be publicly available are for the three main airports. More used to be available through the Australian Airservices site but that might have been a mistake and they disappeared when it was redesigned a couple of years ago.

GFS has been playing around with some humid/moist conditions starting late week into the weekend. Hopefully this sort of situation holds. Cold be some action weather come of it.

jamie wrote:GFS has been playing around with some humid/moist conditions starting late week into the weekend. Hopefully this sort of situation holds. Cold be some action weather come of it.

Yes and the temperatures look like being a whole lot warmer. Should end up with some 20C+ readings in parts of the country.

Dusting of snow on higher peaks of Banks Peninsula this morning.

I'm surprised that i NW wind has come up here this morning,15.5deg

jamie wrote:GFS has been playing around with some humid/moist conditions starting late week into the weekend. Hopefully this sort of situation holds. Cold be some action weather come of it.

Yes, thunderstorms possible upper North Island Friday-Sunday, something to watch.

Some reasonably turbulent looking skies this afternoon. Even a few showers. Looks like weak Mama clouds.

jamie wrote:Some reasonably turbulent looking skies this afternoon. Even a few showers. Looks like weak Mama clouds.

Yes, noticed that too, quite turbulent looking.
For peoples reference: Matangi Weather will be down tomorrow from around 8 AM to 5 PM (Not the lightning detector).
I thought it might be today, but that how things panned out....

Looking forward to the forecasted unstable warmer weather.

Yes. Lots of interesting turbulent looking KH forms with the incoming cloud from the weak front this afternoon

Forecaste high for Auckland tomorrow just 14C? Seems low for mid September. I think 16-17C more likely.

Rain chart for the next 5 days.

Rain/thunder Friday/Saturday over the upper North Island.

Simon Culling wrote:Are METARS available for other NZ airports such as Dunedin, Queenstown, Hamilton etc.?

You have to pay for them by purchasing metflight which is about $100 a year.

The alternative is looking at weather underground but I think they only update every 3 hrs on there.

A chilly low of 2.2°C here earlier this morning.- quite a big drop from yesterday's high of 17.

visability is at a maximum thismorning with crisp clear sky.

Thanks for that information, Steven. The UK is not a bastion of free meteorological information (despite the fact that taxpayers fund 90%+ of its collection cost), but it appears that New Zealanders have very limited access to what is very important information. Why is it so jealously guarded by Metservice?

A lovely warm NW wind has come up here,just on 21deg,hoping for a warmer night than the last two.

Cold over night in Welly.. But worth it for a day like today.. 100% blue sky.. Slight breeze..

Pity the rain is on the way again from Friday..

Simon Culling wrote:Thanks for that information, Steven. The UK is not a bastion of free meteorological information (despite the fact that taxpayers fund 90%+ of its collection cost), but it appears that New Zealanders have very limited access to what is very important information. Why is it so jealously guarded by Metservice?

The Met Service is being operated as a business by the government. But some information is provided free of charge to the NZ public such as forecasts and warnings etc. It's a bit controversial but the arrangement has been in place for 20 years now.

spwill wrote:I will be away on the Sunshine Coast, Qld next week hopefully in sunshine.

Similarly, ill be in NE NSW for the first half of the week and Sydney for the 2nd half. Hoping for a storm or two while over there but the forecast doesnt look promising.

jamie wrote:

spwill wrote:I will be away on the Sunshine Coast, Qld next week hopefully in sunshine.

Similarly, ill be in NE NSW for the first half of the week and Sydney for the 2nd half. Hoping for a storm or two while over there but the forecast doesnt look promising.

Cold upper level temps this Sunday suggests isolated Thunder/hail for SE Qld/NE NSW but still a few days out, plenty of time for the cold air to dip south in the modelling.

A cloudy September for Auckland so far so sunny 28C weather will be nice