NZ Weather Forum

I see from the side of a back country road today that there is a new feature on the skyline of Huia Hill near Kaeo.
I am going to take a (much) closer look next week

iomkiwi wrote:I see from the side of a back country road today that there is a new feature on the skyline of Huia Hill near Kaeo.

Huia Hill radar.jpg

I am going to take a (much) closer look next week

Owwhhh, exciting!

I see a good site or sight to see , excuse the pun
Now when they get their next million dollar funding, it would be nice to a Doppler radar erected on the Otago Peninsula to boost the readings for the Southland and Canterbury radars?

Beat me to it Alan

A glint of light caught my eye on the skyline last Thursday, presumably off one of the hydraulic rams on the monster crane that was extending skywards. Unfortunately it was about 9 or 10km away so couldn't make out details, but there was only one reason something that size would be in a paddock, on top of a hill (especially as we already have Telecom and VF cell towers in that area).

Tis true - A giant toffee-apple appears to have germinated and grown the last two days at :
35° 4'49.96"S 173°48'18.73"E

CbFan
Now with my own personal Doppler

iomkiwi wrote:I see from the side of a back country road today that there is a new feature on the skyline of Huia Hill near Kaeo.

Huia Hill radar.jpg

I am going to take a (much) closer look next week

I'd probably use a 2 Iron.

bpo wrote: I'd probably use a 2 Iron.

Would have to be a big one

Aw sweet!!!!! Can't wait for this to come online.

Yea the octago area is dreadful. I'm surprised people in octago and dunners haven't kicked up more of a fuss about the poor coverage. Dunedin has over 100,000 people and an airport yet it's not covered.

jamie wrote:Aw sweet!!!!! Can't wait for this to come online.

Yea the octago area is dreadful. I'm surprised people in octago and dunners haven't kicked up more of a fuss about the poor coverage. Dunedin has over 100,000 people and an airport yet it's not covered.

I think the main problem is that the Invercargill Radar, wasnt built to be a Weather Radar. It was originally a Radar just to pick up the weather baloons as the go up the atmosphere. It was then converted to a Weather radar later on.
As most people can attest to, it doesn't pick up on the echoes nearly as well a proper Weather Radar should.
Its much prone to radar attenuation etc etc. Once the northland one is finished, I think personally the Invercargill/Southland Radar is due to be replaced or at least another Doppler to take over the Weather related echos.

thanks for the tour of your work place yesterday Tim
will be waiting to see a tweak to the swell models for local spot now , hehe

I was out at Limestone downs farm today (south of port waikato). I came across a tower that had anemometers on it. Apparantly its Contact energys from when they were investigating whether a wind farm would be good there. I am going to contact them and see if there is a way to access the data. That tower would have some very decent wind readings. It would also be VERY prone to lightning strikes.

Manukau heads obs wrote:thanks for the tour of your work place yesterday Tim
will be waiting to see a tweak to the swell models for local spot now , hehe

Yea it was cool that you came, You'll have to come over again.

Yes, I have raised the issue with the appropriate people, I have a suspicion it could be bad bathy in the quadrant, which the model is running against.

I see we will need to setup a Weather meet sometime soon. Get a good catchup with whats been going on with the Weather Nuts and Geeks of NZ

Tornado Tim wrote: I think personally the Invercargill/Southland Radar is due to be replaced or at least another Doppler to take over the Weather related echos.

Yes, I agree.
A huge one to cover both Queenstown and Mamona airports.
I have a lotto ticket for this WE Jackpot win. If I do win, I could contribute some money towards a possible Southland /Otago Doppler Rain radar project. ?

I saw some very interesting things this morning
Will post pics soon (maybe even video).

One of the better weather related mornings I have ever had.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:

bpo wrote: I'd probably use a 2 Iron.

Would have to be a big one

Just be careful when you tee off please - never know who might be inside.



The view isn't bad from the outside either.



and a few pics here http://photos.kerikeriweather.co.nz/gal ... her+radar/

Owhh, very nice Alan, its nice that they let you in to have a look.
I believe this Radar is the same as the Waikato/BOP Radar- the Viasala WRM200- DP Doppler Radar, Alan can you confirm this?
http://www.vaisala.com/Vaisala%20Docume ... rWatch.pdf

Tornado Tim wrote:/vn185_10_MeteorologicalServiceofNewZealandLimitedStrengthensWeatherWatch.pdf

I see there's no mention there of an Otago radar but talk of another West Coast one,though i do understand the the WC is more prone to extreme weather events but you would think that a population of Dunedin's 100,000+ and a domestic airport would give it priority.

Tornado Tim wrote:Owhh, very nice Alan, its nice that they let you in to have a look.
I believe this Radar is the same as the Waikato/BOP Radar- the Viasala WRM200- DP Doppler Radar, Alan can you confirm this?
http://www.vaisala.com/Vaisala%20Docume ... rWatch.pdf

I believe it would be the same, definitely a Vaisala anyway, and it has been sitting in storage for a few years now while the consent process etc dragged on.
From the details the Vaisala engineer was giving it sounds like the same - the dual polarisation can tell the difference between a 'round' hailstone and a 'flat' raindrop.

The radar is capable of doing a lot more than what we ever see - but the newer radars have to be 'throttled back' to give a consistent picture over the whole country.

Richard wrote:

Tornado Tim wrote:/vn185_10_MeteorologicalServiceofNewZealandLimitedStrengthensWeatherWatch.pdf

I see there's no mention there of an Otago radar but talk of another West Coast one,though i do understand the the WC is more prone to extreme weather events but you would think that a population of Dunedin's 100,000+ and a domestic airport would give it priority.

The West Coast one mentioned in that is the Hokitika one that was installed in 2011. This Northland one is the last of 5 that were acquired with funding from the Minister of Transport. Due to consenting issues it is 2 years behind schedule

I did ask if there were any more planned - the answer was that another couple were needed but nothing in the planning stages.

iomkiwi wrote:

Richard wrote:
I see there's no mention there of an Otago radar but talk of another West Coast one,though i do understand the the WC is more prone to extreme weather events but you would think that a population of Dunedin's 100,000+ and a domestic airport would give it priority.

The West Coast one mentioned in that is the Hokitika one that was installed in 2011.

Yes,is to,i miss read it

iomkiwi wrote:


I did ask if there were any more planned - the answer was that another couple were needed but nothing in the planning stages.

I would go for Otago and maybe the Farewell Spit area to back up the Taranaki/Wellington/Westland radars ?

Edit: By the way, I didn't win Lotto, so sorry, no funding from the NZThS

I agree, Otago is where a radar is needed.

Postby iomkiwi on Sun 08/06/2014 21:57

jamie wrote:I hope the new radar comes online tomorrow



Don't be holding your breath for that one

The station itself is operational - but while I was there it was a self contained unit.
It was running on the backup generator, waiting for our local power company to turn the power on.
They were also waiting for Chorus to enable the fibre link, backup satellite comms were also not working.



But that said, it can't be far off.

Just thought I should copy the above from the June thread into here

Woohoo.

Good stuff

I'm surprised how far back it is from the tip of NZ, thought it would have been further North than where it appears it is.