NZ Weather Forum

Change rather useless. Thunderstorm potential now non-existence for ChCh and surrounding areas.
..but it was good. Got rid of the NW or westerly's

Large hail here in cashmere at present. Sporadic, but large

Interesting to see metservice put a 'moderate' risk of severe thunderstorms out this afternoon.
I don't really think conditions warrant such a risk but then again im not a meteorologist however that hail sounds pretty reasonable!
Im in Lincoln now and its SW but the killer as always today has been the Westerly interesting how it kills a lot of the instability.
Still a slight chance of something a little later but other then that id be surprised to see anything significant.
Roll on the NE storm set ups!!

Interesting to see in that warning that they are implying there was light onshore winds and showers have been produced from Otago right up to Kaikoura

Daytime heating and light onshore winds and a southerly change have produced showers about eastern areas from Otago up to the Kaikoura Coast this afternoon and evening. There is a moderate risk of thunderstorms near the coast from North Otago to north Canterbury during the afternoon and early evening. Any thunderstorms here are likely to produce localised heavy rain and strong wind gusts as well as reasonably sized hail of 10 to 20mm in diameter and possibly large accumulations of smaller hail. From the Rakaia River to Banks Peninsula, however, there is a risk Severe thunderstorms, and a Severe Thunderstom Watch is now in place.

A nice little line of beetles, or aphids, or whatever the latest theory is, showing on the radar, rushing westwards

severe watch has just been lifted..

Lightning observed and thunder just heard, to my south-east.

Lightning and thunder on the northern side of town,a possible hail shaft to the south.

Monstrous forked lightning 9 seconds before thunder

Only 3 or 4 seconds between lightning and thunder now, and hail begins.

A shower with some initial wintry hail moving through just before but now it's starting to look a bit interesting, despite the decaying cells.
Could become thunderstormic, after all ?

Really active cell over ashburton at present, very heavy hail shower turning everything white

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:A shower with some initial wintry hail moving through just before but now it's starting to look a bit interesting, despite the decaying cells.
Could become thunderstormic, after all ?

yes its looking a tad better then it was a couple of hours ago, im actually in Lincoln at my parents for tea.. only just relised that storm in ashburton.

Wind has turned SE in Christchurch...

MetService have a Severe Thunderstorm Warning out since 6:52pm for Ashburton & Selwyn Districts

Round two...more hail

Dean. wrote:Round two...more hail !....

Just about to post the same thing!

Ruined tonights bbq !

Overcast now and raining, down to 8C.
Strong southerlies.
Not looking thunderstormic now, unless the sun comes out and heats the ground up

Great light show happening to the south now that its dark

I took chase this afternoon around 2pm and sat under a convergence zone between the westerly and incoming SW, which also happened to be right where it was stuck against the strong westerly at Rakaia to the east.
This meant the line could keep regenerating with two storm cells firing overhead, filming was an only option and minimal in vehicle due to the rain and hail.
But the lightning was mainly IC or CC so not great, hail was initially around 5mm then got up to 10mm later on.
After meeting with aaron we headed around to lincoln area which had died off, but we were not long back south again for that second southerly and storm.
Sat near Rakaia where we seen 8-9 good CGs and it really had that look and feel like it could turn into a supercell, the height on the clouds was huge and good bases too with a strong inflow tail from the SE.
But it lost omph too quickly in the end but still flared up further north, hail 20-25mm in the stuff down near Oamaru not a bad call in the end as I mentioned in my first post.
Ill get a few lightning stills up tomorrow.

I had a quick look at the Oamaru hailstorm and a weak E/NE surface wind developed there according to a local weather station.

I have reconstructed the GFS sounding for Oamaru for moisture and some fairly decent CAPE results. 500j/kg.
Note the upper level flow is 35knots.

Sounds like a good day down there SS .We are hoping for these westerly gales to leave us so we can have some decent convergence setups. Next week looks good with some S/SE changes and 22/24 deg days. More action for u guys as well.

Good wee chase last night. Saw a few flashes and git a photo of a really nice structured gust front with a nice inflow tail. A NE developed after the initial first SW came through and it just blew up!

Just a few video stills from yesterdays first lot of storms, filming was tricky with the rain and hail coming down so I am actually sitting down in the car on the opposite side to the breezy westerly.
Im just playing around with a few of the settings that the camera has, so its actually set on Tunsten which is a dark blue tinge you can see on the photos and it brings out the lightning not too bad and sort of makes it less grainy too.