General November Weather

Archive of NZ Weather & Climate
Forum rules
These topics are a read-only archive and may be subject to out-of-date information.

For today's weather discussion head to: New Zealand Weather & Climate
Locked
User avatar
NZstorm
Posts: 11333
Joined: Mon 10/03/2003 19:38
Location: Grey Lynn, Auckland
Has thanked: 342 times
Been thanked: 361 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by NZstorm »

jamie wrote:How many strikes were recorded last night? There sure was a lot!
Ricky's tracker detected 12000 from midnight to 6am. Would be interesting to see what the Met Service picked up.
spwill
Posts: 9907
Joined: Sun 29/06/2003 22:39
Location: Mt Eden Auckland
Has thanked: 839 times
Been thanked: 866 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by spwill »

A lightning photo from last night. Too much rain, wind and no shelter for much photography.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
spwill
Posts: 9907
Joined: Sun 29/06/2003 22:39
Location: Mt Eden Auckland
Has thanked: 839 times
Been thanked: 866 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by spwill »

The Weatherzone satellite pic for early this morning showing the Cbs
Much of the lightning was over the North shore and then South Auckland, a lot of lightning observed last night.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
NZstorm
Posts: 11333
Joined: Mon 10/03/2003 19:38
Location: Grey Lynn, Auckland
Has thanked: 342 times
Been thanked: 361 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by NZstorm »

Just for the record I have taken last night's observed Whenuapai 12Z sounding marked in yellow where the CAPE would have been. The CAPE values would have been fairly decent by the look and the wind fields were huge.

Elevated storms typically anchor on an inversion so I have marked the instability from that point.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by NZstorm on Sun 22/11/2015 09:53, edited 1 time in total.
dannews
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat 20/01/2007 19:52
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by dannews »

What an awesome storm!
User avatar
KiwiWeather
Posts: 403
Joined: Wed 01/02/2006 15:58
Location: South Auckland - NZ
Has thanked: 37 times
Been thanked: 32 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by KiwiWeather »

dannews wrote:What an awesome storm!
It sure was and it kept me awake most of the night. But hey, it was well worth it :)
User avatar
Nev
Moderator
Posts: 6216
Joined: Tue 07/03/2006 15:24
Location: Waiheke Island, Hauraki Gulf
Has thanked: 468 times
Been thanked: 1064 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Nev »

MS recorded over 1300 CG's strikes around Auckland last night, and gusts to 104 km/h at Whangaparaoa yesterday evening. 12mm here overnight.

Here's a couple of Blitzortung screen-grabs from earlier this morn…
Blitzortung -Nov 22, 1.45am.png
Blitzortung - Nov 22, 4.00am.png
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
Tornado Tim
Moderator
Posts: 4920
Joined: Sun 19/10/2008 17:17
Location: Raglan, Waikato / Hillcrest, Hamilton
Has thanked: 102 times
Been thanked: 202 times
Contact:

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Tornado Tim »

Blitzortung counted 3200 Cloud to Ground Lightning Strikes last night, most were above 16KA. There would have been much more IC Strikes which Metservices network detects.

Here is a Jet/Sat Animation with Lightning overlay of last nights activity:

The Water vapour image makes the resulting Lightning activity much more clear, notice there is warmer drier section post the front, there would been some good warm dryer undercutting which would have exponentially helped the lift.
NZAPStrike.net - NZ Aus Pacific Strike Network
User avatar
Nev
Moderator
Posts: 6216
Joined: Tue 07/03/2006 15:24
Location: Waiheke Island, Hauraki Gulf
Has thanked: 468 times
Been thanked: 1064 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Nev »

Well done Tim _b

My mistake, I always assumed MS's tracker only picked up CG's. Here's a few excerpts of interest...
''Very, very intense' thunderstorm batters Auckland' - Auckland Now (Stuff)

The northern region was hit by more than 10,000 lightning strikes on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, with over 1300 occurring in the Auckland area. The storm also affected the Coromandel, Waikato and Bay of Plenty areas…

The cold front brought strong winds of more than 100kmh. Winds were strongest out west, where the exposed Manukau Heads registered the strongests gusts of 128kmh. The Harbour Bridge registered winds of up to 96kmh overnight.

Many of the MetService's rain monitoring stations were knocked out by the lightning, but Kerr [MetService meteorologist] said Auckland had seen substantial rain as well. Among the most affected areas was Pukekohe, which had 31mm of rain overnight...
jamie
Posts: 5907
Joined: Fri 25/02/2011 21:35
Location: Hamilton NZ
Has thanked: 22 times
Been thanked: 273 times
Contact:

General November Weather

Unread post by jamie »

Awesome Tim. Shows the 4 storms that clipped cooks Mercury Bay Area nicely. I'm quite tired today from leaping out of bed for each storm.

What was missed by the models on this? Nothing stood out that I saw in the days leading up and met service had a low risk out.
User avatar
Willoughby
Site Admin
Posts: 4433
Joined: Sat 14/06/2003 16:18
Location: Darwin, Australia: Storm city
Has thanked: 264 times
Been thanked: 288 times
Contact:

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Willoughby »

jamie wrote: What was missed by the models on this? Nothing stood out that I saw in the days leading up and met service had a low risk out.
Well picked up by Steven W and I think the models did well 15 hours out. Very much an elevated convection setup so the Showalter index is used in this respect (raising the parcel from 850mb rather than the surface or lowest 100mb as CAPE or normal Lifted Index does) as these would have shown very small values.

There's a really good explanation on SI here: http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/301/
NZ Thunderstorm Soc
Posts: 18488
Joined: Wed 12/03/2003 22:08
Location: Raukapuka Geraldine
Has thanked: 1769 times
Been thanked: 1412 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by NZ Thunderstorm Soc »

You lucky buggers(and buggeresses) getting those thunderstorms overnight when down here, when MS originally forecasted thunderstorms for down here during Saturday, despite the keen ENE wind, conditions were quite hopeless.
Looks like I planned the wrong WE to go to Auckland. #-o +9
JohnGaul
NZThS
User avatar
03Stormchaser
Moderator
Posts: 4428
Joined: Tue 09/12/2003 12:11
Location: Prebbleton
Has thanked: 104 times
Been thanked: 184 times
Contact:

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by 03Stormchaser »

Have been in Queenstown for the weekend. Witnessed what I presume was lightning flashes in the walk back to the holiday home early this morning.

On another note, Stormchasers had a mention in a BBC article about chasing in USA.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151117 ... ed-on-film
NZ Largest Storm Chasing Facebook Pagehttp://www.facebook.com/nzstormchasers
NZ Largest Storm Chase Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/NZStormchasersGroup
NZ Stormchasers TV https://www.youtube.com/@NZStormchasers
NZ Thunderstorm Soc
Posts: 18488
Joined: Wed 12/03/2003 22:08
Location: Raukapuka Geraldine
Has thanked: 1769 times
Been thanked: 1412 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by NZ Thunderstorm Soc »

Just thinking :-k
Was there a severe thunderstorm watch for Auckland issued yesterday? I can't remember as I was concentrating on the useless thunderstorm event issued for Canterbury?
JohnGaul
NZThS
User avatar
Tornado Tim
Moderator
Posts: 4920
Joined: Sun 19/10/2008 17:17
Location: Raglan, Waikato / Hillcrest, Hamilton
Has thanked: 102 times
Been thanked: 202 times
Contact:

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Tornado Tim »

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:Just thinking :-k
Was there a severe thunderstorm watch for Auckland issued yesterday? I can't remember as I was concentrating on the useless thunderstorm event issued for Canterbury?
Not that I can recall, in any case Im not sure that the event was severe enough to warrant one.

It was just due to the very good upper level dynamics that the Lightning was as strong and frequent as it was. (in some other countries what Auckland and Northland had would have been a standard storm :) )
NZAPStrike.net - NZ Aus Pacific Strike Network
jamie
Posts: 5907
Joined: Fri 25/02/2011 21:35
Location: Hamilton NZ
Has thanked: 22 times
Been thanked: 273 times
Contact:

General November Weather

Unread post by jamie »

Yea there was nothing severe about it......maybe gusts of you went looking for them. We are just not used to the frequent lightning.
spwill
Posts: 9907
Joined: Sun 29/06/2003 22:39
Location: Mt Eden Auckland
Has thanked: 839 times
Been thanked: 866 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by spwill »

The northerly flow this week will bring humid air down onto northern NZ so max temps in the low to mid twenties will feel warm.
User avatar
Vertigo
Posts: 1184
Joined: Sun 09/12/2007 23:50
Location: Henderson, Auckland
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 12 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Vertigo »

What a storm indeed! On the level of the one over the Coromandel a few years back, but that was entirely stationary, with good sheer aloft. These were fast movers due to the jet stream. One of the first one passed almost directly over my house, excellent stuff indeed. Was up for most of the night watching the show. For most of it the lightning was every 10 seconds or so, with peak around every 3-4 seconds at times.

On another note, I downloaded the Blitzortung android app for this event, and it didnt seem to be registering many of the strikes. Is this normal? I didnt compare to the website, as was busy watching the storms.
Razor
Moderator
Posts: 5121
Joined: Fri 10/02/2006 15:14
Location: Halswell, Christchurch
Has thanked: 717 times
Been thanked: 923 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Razor »

Yes very jealous of the concept of an actual storm, let alone decent rain... most parts around here are now browning off rapidly and joining North Canterbury in a serious moisture deficit prognosis. A long hot week looms looking at the forecast too
Christchurch Rocks
User avatar
NZstorm
Posts: 11333
Joined: Mon 10/03/2003 19:38
Location: Grey Lynn, Auckland
Has thanked: 342 times
Been thanked: 361 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by NZstorm »

Such storm set ups as the one at the weekend can produce severe hail. Nothing reported but just making the point that elevated storms are not necessarily non severe. I have seen large hail in USA from elevated set ups similar to that one.
jamie
Posts: 5907
Joined: Fri 25/02/2011 21:35
Location: Hamilton NZ
Has thanked: 22 times
Been thanked: 273 times
Contact:

General November Weather

Unread post by jamie »

We did get rain drops that made me think this could have hail fall soon. Very large sporadic drops of rain and nothing else
User avatar
NZstorm
Posts: 11333
Joined: Mon 10/03/2003 19:38
Location: Grey Lynn, Auckland
Has thanked: 342 times
Been thanked: 361 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by NZstorm »

Looking like a warm front coming south later today bringing some humid air into northern areas. Then we get an upper trough coming in later tomorrow across the moisture so a bit of a convective risk there. Will be keeping an eye on tomorrow afternoon and hopefully not too overcast. Looking like 100% chance of precip anyway. Thunder risk 30% at a guess.
spwill
Posts: 9907
Joined: Sun 29/06/2003 22:39
Location: Mt Eden Auckland
Has thanked: 839 times
Been thanked: 866 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by spwill »

Looks like the best of the upper trough comes through in the overnight hrs tomorrow however there does look to be a thunder risk for the upper North Island later tomorrow where heating can occur.
Bradley
Posts: 1516
Joined: Wed 01/05/2013 21:06
Location: Christchurch
Has thanked: 142 times
Been thanked: 269 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Bradley »

The 10 day rainfall outlook for mid and north Canterbury looks diabolical, any gains made in October will be wiped out by this time next week. Fingers crossed that some useful rain happens by mid December or January could be a recipe for disaster...
Razor
Moderator
Posts: 5121
Joined: Fri 10/02/2006 15:14
Location: Halswell, Christchurch
Has thanked: 717 times
Been thanked: 923 times

Re: General November Weather

Unread post by Razor »

Bradley wrote:The 10 day rainfall outlook for mid and north Canterbury looks diabolical, any gains made in October will be wiped out by this time next week. Fingers crossed that some useful rain happens by mid December or January could be a recipe for disaster...
Think the gains are gone already...
Christchurch Rocks
Locked