Thunderstorms and possible Tornadoes - 16th May

Tornado Tim · Unread post by **Tornado Tim** » Mon 16/05/2016 19:24

Waiting in Welly airport, flight got delayed by 20min..... Will see if I can grab a window seat.

Went on the Metservice roof with a bunch of meteorologists as the front came in, pretty awesome. The Data coming in from the radar was quite cool, no gust fronts on the line that went through Welly, but some hail did come through.

Manukau heads obs · Mon 16/05/2016 19:35

went for a drive to up the road
came across very squally rain..just 2 minutes up the road
isolated and dynamic showers, unstable conditions...pulsy type shower trains
lots of pine needles on the roads here as that the first gale we have had for months

sounds exciting at your place Jamie!

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Mon 16/05/2016 19:43

I went down to Hamton Downs, watched lightning to my south over Jamie's way and to the north of my location before the front came through with gusty heavy rain

David · Unread post by **David** » Mon 16/05/2016 19:47

Was a bit of a fizzer here, only 1mm rain and max gust 38kph. Did see some very distant lightning earlier though.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Mon 16/05/2016 19:50

Very strong winds hitting CHC now, gusting over 100kmph up the port hills

RODALCO · Unread post by **RODALCO** » Mon 16/05/2016 19:53

Squall line is over now. lot cooler and the rain has stopped.

mikestormchaser · Unread post by **mikestormchaser** » Mon 16/05/2016 19:56

strong southerly hitting here to! Much needed rain on the roof

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Mon 16/05/2016 20:27

Yes. SW through here just before 8pm. Rain following, also a jump in barometric pressure.
Sadly, no lightning or thunder to which I missed this morning, to the west, as I was asleep and didn't have to get up during the night for a "Johnny Riddle".

joecam · Unread post by **joecam** » Mon 16/05/2016 22:12

Sitting in my truck at the Hilltop SH 75 constant 60km/h Gusting 75-85 rocking me around.

Tornado Tim · Unread post by **Tornado Tim** » Mon 16/05/2016 22:34

Flight over from Wellington was quite awesome, lots of large snowflakes visible out the window, going through the showers, missed the major activity through by an hour or so, could see quite a few strikes from the Window.

Tornado Tim · Unread post by **Tornado Tim** » Mon 16/05/2016 23:53

Can head some thunder atm, Lightning flickering away to the south....

jamie · Unread post by **jamie** » Tue 17/05/2016 00:10

Yea just been woken by thunder and a squall.

Manukau heads obs · Tue 17/05/2016 06:03

good gale here overnight (105kmh max gust)

shovelopikis · Unread post by **shovelopikis** » Tue 17/05/2016 06:06

Nothing but heavy rain and wind in the front but between 11pm and 1am it was all on! Lightning every 20 seconds and thunder that rattled houses and set car alarms off.

Nev · Unread post by **Nev** » Tue 17/05/2016 06:48

I see gusts at Whangaparaoa shot up to 93 km/h as the front passed through Akld around 7-8pm.

That prefrontal Cb that NZstorm photographed over the North Shore at around 4:30pm dropped 3.5mm here (and 1 IC-strike) about 30 minutes later - event total 4mm.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Tue 17/05/2016 06:52

Auckland missed the thunder due to the NW flow. The metro area always seems to miss out in NW, need the surface NE.

Glad I drove to down Waikato, nice to be in a storm although lightning was largely up in the clouds, not photogenic.

GFS did a pretty good job with this set up I thought.

Orion · Unread post by **Orion** » Tue 17/05/2016 07:11

I was on the phone to my Silverdale Spy at 7:30pm last night and the rain was roaring down there then.
Those at Whangaparaoa were looking forward to having rainwater-tanks replenished.

Manukau heads obs · Tue 17/05/2016 07:27

was good to get some action weather , that's for sure

been a long time

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Tue 17/05/2016 08:32

That system was the change of seasons for NZ.

For Auckland it is dry season to wet season.

Manukau heads obs · Tue 17/05/2016 08:35

calm season to windy season too
temperature still up on normal despite being a SW wind
16C here currently
due to warmer than normal tasman sea

Lunar2 · Unread post by **Lunar2** » Tue 17/05/2016 10:51

Stuff reporting one of those "mini" tornadoes. At the mount. Is mini tornado even a thing?

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Tue 17/05/2016 11:15

It was giant tornado last week on the coast...

Sent from my Nexus 5

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Tue 17/05/2016 12:40

I was amused last week to see Stuff refer to the West Coast tornado as a giant tornado, and NZHerald refer to it as a mini-tornado! Really...

Sent from what I laughingly call my brain

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Tue 17/05/2016 12:44

TonyT wrote:I was amused last week to see Stuff refer to the West Coast tornado as a giant tornado, and NZHerald refer to it as a mini-tornado! Really...

Sent from what I laughingly call my brain

Arnt these agencies looking at merging? I hope they get this sorted before finalising anything!

Sent from my Nexus 5

Thunder081 · Unread post by **Thunder081** » Tue 17/05/2016 13:34

Lunar2 wrote:Number of weak waterspout looking things off kapiti

I saw them as well between Paraparaumu beach and Kapiti, but I reckon they were whipped up from the wind downdrafting off Kapiti Island. You see them all the time between Ohwiro Bay and red rocks when the wind is strong enough to whip up sea spray.

Here's a pic of one the whirlwinds off Paraparaumu beach.

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