General March Weather

[spwill]

Fine and cloudy periods for Central Auckland 14 -24C, light winds.

Afternoon heavy shower activity for western parts of South Auckland and Waikato, a slow moving convergence line across that area. Went for a drive mid afternoon down to Pukekohe, plenty of heavy rain coming out of those Cbs so some of the dry farms down there will have got a good soaking.

[Richard]

Lovely mild NW wind this morning keeping it to a 15deg low over night,Culverden only 15km away is on 9deg with out the wind.

[Orion]

At 7.30am this morning: lemon-coloured mammatus to the north-east; and a very high and deeply-coloured rainbow to the south-west - a colourful sky

[Orion]

Southerly has just begun hissing through.

[Razor]

Nor west spillover rain here in ChCh at present

[jamie]

It was much warmer at 1am in Auckland thismorning than it was all day yesterday in Melbourne. I could see my breath in Melbourne. This was after 30+ temps earlier in the week. Crazy city that one.

Interestingly it was just as brown when we took off last week as it was in Victoria. Some parts of VIC were greener than us.

[Richard]

Poured down briefly here as well,now stopped and dead calm.

[Orion]

Raining well here now and a very strong smell of the sea.

[Razor]

Geez the rain radar suggsting some pretty volatile stuff incoming here in ChCh shortly....

[Richard]

Certainly looks unstable too,was 19deg a short time ago but a SE wind has now come up,i see moderate risk now for Canterbury,maybe this bloody time a storm can pass over here

[LittleTreeHouse]

It's bucketing down in Southbridge, really squally!

[Orion]

I'm just wondering what it was I thought I heard rumbling to my south-east... I see some red bits in the rain-radar out there.
Raining well.

[Powermad]

Reports of heavy hail in Sheffield and sferics rampant on radio.. Dunno if it's gonna hit Chch that hard..

[Karliosis]

Starting to hear distant thunder now from Burwood

[Razor]

Observed amazing cloud to ground lightning just to the NE of the CBD just now.

[Karliosis]

Observed amazing cloud to ground lightning just to the NE of the CBD just now.

There was an incredibly close strike somewhere near here, flash and loud bang less than 1 second apart!

[Skywatcher]

Went for a quick chase but the rain was too heavy in strong winds so headed home. I haven't seen any lightning bolts here, just flashes in the fast moving clouds and heard half a dozen rumbles of thunder moving from W to NE.

[Orion]

Rain-radar image at 2:37 somewhat flawed...

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I've just got home and there were some rumbles of thunder reported here in west Melton.
Interesting front as I had no idea it would be as vigorous as this ?

[TonyT]

Continuous rumbly thunder here for last 20 mins, easing now. Squally wind change with 20mm hail for about 3 min, now just rain.

[melja]

Yep good thunder storm just moved through Rangiora, thunder for at least 30min and still the odd bit to be heard.

[Richard]

What a vigorous front that was alright,lots of rumbles to the south around to the NE,but not close.

[Storm Struck]

Yes although the models didn't show much for Canterbury in general thunder wise, I think the upper level jet must have been present today which was enough forcing to get cloud tops up along with the incoming cold air.
I could see it was very turbulent in the skies around 1pm clouds peeling over from the west while others low and mid level skirted in from the south.
The front hit very quickly with heavy rain, I didn't hear any thunder though or observe lightning.
It looks like Kaikoura just got smashed and Wellington could be next.
Second time ive had storms on my birthday , last time was 25th march 2012 that was a chase day.

[Richard]

Only ended up with the strong wind and the distant thunder,no rain to speck of.

[snowstormwatcher]

Thunder and lightning with heavy rain in Timaru around 12.30.