NZ Weather Forum

Richard wrote:Currently in Balclutha this morning with a shower going over atm. Yesterday i drove through heavy rain just before Dunedin, pulled over on the south side of the shower to check out the cloud formations and was treated to a few claps of thunder, so that made my day.

Yep, heard that thunder too. Only the once though.
We ended up with 22mm of rain yesterday which will certainly help the garden and keep the farmers happy for a bit round these parts.

The Auckland dewpoint is 20C this morning for the first time this season, Greylynn showing dewpoint at 21C. The humid weather moves out later in the day, looks like it will push back in on Monday

Feels like Feb today. Currently 23C with 20-21C dewpoint here and the sun is now coming out... also the lack of wind today makes it feel even worse

Got sunburnt quite quick today
very clear sky and low humidity doesn't filter much UV out I guess

Windy NW again developed.
I like the way they say rain or a possible shower with a SW change, when the very likely possibly is Zero.

Trace of drizzle early. The pattern of dry southerlies rolls on unabated. Another hot dry week looms. This is the el Nino we expected

A wet month in the north was unexpected with no sign of drought here. The Waikato region has had over 100mm, a great month for the dairy farmers.
Grey Lynn on 84mm.

einzack wrote:

Richard wrote:Currently in Balclutha this morning with a shower going over atm. Yesterday i drove through heavy rain just before Dunedin, pulled over on the south side of the shower to check out the cloud formations and was treated to a few claps of thunder, so that made my day.

Yep, heard that thunder too. Only the once though.
We ended up with 22mm of rain yesterday which will certainly help the garden and keep the farmers happy for a bit round these parts.

Was there thunder later Sunday in the same area,we drove through a hail shower about 4.30pm but didn't pull over this time.

The South Island Thunderstorm season has almost been non existent this Spring, I don't think anyone picked that to happen with a strong El Nino.

So I wonder then spwill if this summer will follow 97/98 as the spring in 97 seemed to be similar in terms of lack of thunderstorm action as this year?

spwill wrote:The South Island Thunderstorm season has almost been non existent this Spring, I don't think anyone picked that to happen with a strong El Nino.

I certainly didn't.
After a reasonable cold winter and with cold weather venturing further into November, that with the mix of warmer sunshine, things were likely to happen but things have proved rather useless...
Lots have to do with timing and the mechanics of the southerly changes that have come through, maybe?

A lack of cold troughs this spring.
Possibly a period of colder SW weather on the way later in the week /early next week, usually good for a storm or two up the east side of the South Island this time of year.

Richard wrote:

einzack wrote: Yep, heard that thunder too. Only the once though.
We ended up with 22mm of rain yesterday which will certainly help the garden and keep the farmers happy for a bit round these parts.

Was there thunder later Sunday in the same area,we drove through a hail shower about 4.30pm but didn't pull over this time.

we had a period of very heavy rain and small hail Saturday arvo - that what you mean?
so thunder friday arvo, hail saturday arvo.

einzack wrote:

Richard wrote:
Was there thunder later Sunday in the same area,we drove through a hail shower about 4.30pm but didn't pull over this time.

we had a period of very heavy rain and small hail Saturday arvo - that what you mean?
so thunder friday arvo, hail saturday arvo.

The hail sounded quite big by the way it was hitting the windscreen, this was north of Evensdale at the top of the hill. It certainly looked like there could have been thunder&lightning

Nice to here pitter/patter on the roof this morning around 5:30am and some low cloud and drizzle moving in from about 8:30am. Not really forecasted but it did deliver 0.5mm here, which was quite nice, also the keen ENE that developed kept the cloud cover moving across, resulting with the precipitation that did occurred, some relief to the parched areas that are developing over the Selwyn district at the moment, from the sunny and dry NW days of recent.
Mind you, this week coming, there may be a humid, warming trend as the anticyclone intensifies to the east of the SI with humid air moving around from that high and TC Tuni to the north of it, with warmer moist air being deflected back onto New Zealand. A change from the dry NW experienced this week.

Not to knock the apple cart too early, but the later stages of the week could bring some thunder chances for Canterbury at this stage.
Will hope it stays that way until closer to the time instead of this inconsistency in the models of late

We're going to finish the month with just 13.5mm of rain, following on from the 14.5mm in October. Next few days will be hot and dry too.

Rangitata figures this month:

Avg temp: 12.9°C
Avg Minimum: 6.3°C
Avg Maximum: 19.6°C
Minimum temp: 0.1°C on 5th
Maximum temp: 29.8°C on 26th
Rainfall: 23.4mm (8 days of rain, 7mm on 15th) YTD 212.4mm (not complete as recording didn't start at start of year)

This November's generally cooler nighttime temps outweighed warmer daytime temps, keeping average temps a little below normal. Rainfall above normal in central North Island areas, Westland and Southland, but well below normal in parts of the Wairarapa, Marlborough, Nelson and Canterbury. Sunshine generally above average for most places.
Some very preliminary November 2015 figures for the main centres:
Notable record low rainfalls included just 2.8mm at Blenheim Research and 4.8mm at Blenheim Aero.

I do wish we'd stop using Christchurch Aero as our main site.

Well, there is always Riccarton?

I see TVNZ's 'Sam-the-weatherman' getting his facts completely wrong again. This time claiming that Blenheim Aero's previous Nov record low rainfall was 14.4mm in 1997. Its previous Nov record since (incomplete) records began in 1941 was actually 6.1mm in 1970, followed by 6.5mm in 1950, 7.6mm in 2007 and 9.9mm in 1972.

Blenheim Research's previous record since records began in 1985 was 5.3mm in 1989.

Nev wrote:I see TVNZ's 'Sam-the-weatherman' getting his facts completely wrong again. This time claiming that Blenheim Aero's previous Nov record low rainfall was 14.4mm in 1997. Its previous Nov record since (incomplete) records began in 1941 was actually 6.1mm in 1970, followed by 6.5mm in 1950, 7.6mm in 2007 and 9.9mm in 1972.

Blenheim Research's previous record since records began in 1985 was 5.3mm in 1989.

What abut the older records from the town? (Waterlea was one site I think from memory)

Lowest Nov rainfall for the Waterlea, Blenheim site (1927-1984) was 4.6mm in 1950...

Nev wrote:Lowest Nov rainfall for the Waterlea, Blenheim site (1927-1984) was 4.6mm in 1950...

Thanks Nev - I do recall reports of Nov & Dec 1950 being dry sunny months (in a long-running but fading La Nina), but the early months of 1951 were wet and and cloudy in Canterbury and some other eastern areas.