NZ Weather Forum

Thought I would get something started as it looks likely that majority of NZ will experience a cold outbreak and also that the Central NI and various other places will see quite a decent dump of snow on Saturday with the snow level dropping to around 600-700m in the NI with plenty of moisture around and even lower in the SI

The moisture levels are going down day by day for Christchurch with this one, EC only has 5mm for Us now

Yea nothing to write home about, only got 7mm in the models here now. Never got into this one, didn't 'feel' right

Roll on spring and warmth:mrgreen:

Ruapehu looks to be in line for a dumping

Looks a decent Wintry spell for Otago/Southland, heavy snow showers for exposed coastal areas on Saturday.

jamie wrote:Ruapehu looks to be in line for a dumping

Yeah its looking favorable for sure. Its going to need it after the 100mm+ of rain they would have received by this time tomorrow.. According to their website figures they have already lost 20-30cm of base since yesterday with another very heavy burst of rain due tonight..

Looks like it's snowing down to the car park now tho.

Interesting that Metservice has a 'chance of snow' for Christchurch's forecast for Sunday

I'm more interested in seeing if Reefton can hit anything like these overnight lows the computer is forecasting for over the weekend......
Quite a polar blast....

Latest run of GFS points to some snow showers to sea level for Dunedin and Christchurch on Sunday. Have to see if that stays in modelling.

Also, a trough crossing late Fri/Saturday morning time frame will give widespread snow for inland Southland to Canterbury. 5-15cm to 300m.

The front crossing the North Island Saturday morning will be a snow maker and will drop the snow level down to National Park level.

Yep there's a 12 hour period from late Saturday night to Sunday midday where the thickness is 522 or below with -7C at 850hpa - easily cold enough for sea level snow for Christchurch but where is the moisture?

Bradley wrote:Yep there's a 12 hour period from late Saturday night to Sunday midday where the thickness is 522 or below with -7C at 850hpa - easily cold enough for sea level snow for Christchurch but where is the moisture?

I reckon metvuw has clawed some moisture back into this thing also Weatherzone is showing a decent period of moderate snow for canty

Bradley wrote:Yep there's a 12 hour period from late Saturday night to Sunday midday where the thickness is 522 or below with -7C at 850hpa - easily cold enough for sea level snow for Christchurch but where is the moisture?

Gfs showing precipitable water values along Canterbury coast 8-9mm with a short wave crossing. Have to see how this looks in successive runs.

Feeling hopeful about this one for the Ruapehu skifields... am heading down there Saturday morning for four days... hope the roads are all open!

Bradley wrote:Yep there's a 12 hour period from late Saturday night to Sunday midday where the thickness is 522 or below with -7C at 850hpa - easily cold enough for sea level snow for Christchurch but where is the moisture?

Exactly, moisture, or lack there of, will be the issue for most of the east coast of the south island. Still even without heavy snow this is going to be a significant polar event as wind chill temps are going to be very low for a good 24-36 hours over a reasonably large area of the South Island and higher areas of the North Island. Plenty of lambs being born in the last few weeks around otago so not good news for them and I'd imagine the story will be the same in other regions?

Precipitation for NI looks to be at its heaviest early morning Saturday.. Should bring a decent amount of snow back to Ruapehu..

Metvuw has upped moisture for the last few runs and gfs has also. Around 28mm for my area now which could make things interesting. That's the most consistency I've seen with this event so far as earlier in the week every run flopped the opposite way to the run before it.

matttbs wrote:Metvuw has upped moisture for the last few runs and gfs has also.

The Metvuw maps are the GFS data.

TonyT wrote:

matttbs wrote:Metvuw has upped moisture for the last few runs and gfs has also.

The Metvuw maps are the GFS data.

You learn something every day

The data used is obtained from the United States National Weather Service. These charts are updated approximately every 6 hours and provide forecasts up to 180h ahead of the time they were issued.

Interesting that Metservice seem to think Monday might be the day for heavy snow for Canterbury:

During Monday a high should begin moving onto the country from the west. However, rain and snow is likely to continue in eastern areas and snow could become heavy in higher parts of Mid and North Canterbury and along the Kaikoura Coast. There is low risk that snow accumulations above 400 metres in these areas (including Banks Peninsula) will warrant a warning.

NIWA's rain model going for around 30-35mm for the period from Friday to Monday, EC 's latest forecast has also doubled its morning forecast to around 15mm. EC also going for around 50mm for next weekend!!

I'm not expecting much from this system, but it would be nice if this El Niño, this spring will deliver some thunderstorms, not rain/showers which could be thundery

From metservice;

*New Area* CANTERBURY Plains and Foothills: Heavier showers are possible from Friday evening and may bring snow levels down to 100-200 metres. There is still some uncertainty where these heavier snow showers will occur. There is a risk that some places along the Plains and Foothills above 200 metres may receive around 5cm of snow in a short period of time during Friday evening or early Saturday morning.