NZ Weather Forum

jamie wrote:yep thunder here now!

Can see those cells from here as our skies start to clear.

Looks like a weak cell way to the N/NE of here. No sferics tho'.

Some good Thunder here now......

I think moisture is completely lacking today. A wee cell went up inland and N of Woodend and is moving to the coast but that has been it so far.

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03Stormchaser wrote:I think moisture is completely lacking today. A wee cell went up inland and N of Woodend and is moving to the coast but that has been it so far.

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This was how it looked from my side, a NW wind came up here about 12.00 pm and killed any chance of any development

Tomorrow does look better as been said. But I'm unsure of the potential severe thunderstorm risk with large hail in the north Canterbury region, set by Metservice? Upper levels aren't that cold and it's very light winds at upper levels aswel. So what am I not picking that Metservice can see?

Photo of a good funnel cloud near Huntly on One news tonight.

That will be on the stationary storm to my north. I'm in it's outflow... Just. People to the north getting lots more rain.

I'm not surprised it had a funnel at some point

Rogue wrote:Photo of a good funnel cloud near Huntly on One news tonight.

I was looking at that cell on the radar and thinking about how highly structured it looked judging by the precip pattern.
Ofcoarse we don't have the doppler, but I think it was possibly a small supercell.

The Cb stayed in the same area on the radar for atleast a couple of hrs, reports of flooding in Huntly on ONE news.

I was tempted to go for a drive but didn't. Wish I had now. Only 10 mins north of here.

Details of the funnel-cloud just after 4pm and the flooding at Huntly…

'Fire crews respond to flooding in Huntly as a tornado-like cloud hovers' - TVNZ

Also grabbed this image of the funnel-cloud for posterity…

I see there was a heavy fall of hail in central Hawkes Bay today too.

Isolated storms occurred from Northland down to Southland this afternoon.

great funnel cloud...that must have been close to touching down by the looks of the photo..I bet there was some rotation in the wind at the surface!

spwill wrote:Ongoing thundery rain here at Owera, very loud thunder just now with a strike that must have been nearby.

My Silverdale Spy was driving on the Hibiscus Coast Highway very near the Northern Motorway crossing at around that time (9:40-ish) this morning and observed a startlingly close lightning flash, followed nearly immediately by colossal thunder.

I wonder if someone from metservice reading this could post some detail about the huntly Storm?

I'd certainly be interested to know more about why it sat still for so long, why there was only half a dozen or so lightning strikes from it, whether it was a super cell (it had some structure on the radar with a pointed end with strong echoes. It then fanned out where the rain was falling) which drove the funnel cloud, if it was a supercell how did it form in the conditions we had today, and finally how much rain was suspected of falling by radar estimate.

Thanks in advance

Was just putting my car away for the night and heard serferics between the am frequency. Must be picking up the Lightning from the storms on West coast as there's nothing in the Canterbury. Nice to hear the storms up north. That's an impressive funnel cloud!

That funnel, if you look closely, had a nice core to it.

jamie wrote:I wonder if someone from metservice reading this could post some detail about the huntly Storm?

I'd certainly be interested to know more about why it sat still for so long, why there was only half a dozen or so lightning strikes from it, whether it was a super cell (it had some structure on the radar with a pointed end with strong echoes. It then fanned out where the rain was falling) which drove the funnel cloud, if it was a supercell how did it form in the conditions we had today, and finally how much rain was suspected of falling by radar estimate.

Thanks in advance

I'm thinking it was a small LP structure which means the rotation was too small to show up on radar. But the precip pattern showed good structure anyway. The storm was riding a stationary frontal boundary.

I have seen these types of storms last for many hours in the US, just sitting in the one spot. Recall the LP storm on our last day in Oklahoma 2010 trip Jamie. Not a big storm but persistent over the one spot with good inflow structure. Also I saw a good one in Southland a few years back.

But didnt they get flooding in Huntly?, if that cell was of 'small LP structure', it must have had some heavy precipitation.

The Herald has another view of the funnel-cloud west of Huntly, along with some impressive images of the hail in Hawke's Bay…

'Wild weather: Flooding in Huntly and Hawke's Bay following sudden storms' - NZ Herald

Below is also a 4pm radar image showing the cell over Huntly…

Always a good sign in Canterbury when you see slow moving clouds like these out to sea, you know the atmosphere is unstable

Richard wrote:Always a good sign in Canterbury when you see slow moving clouds like these out to sea, you know the atmosphere is unstable

Typical signs there Richard indeed. Esp on days when you know it's going to happen. "High risk severe days"

Richard wrote:But didnt they get flooding in Huntly?, if that cell was of 'small LP structure', it must have had some heavy precipitation.

I guess the term LP can be a bit misleading but I am referring more to a style of storm structure.

I saw a photo of the Huntly storm somewhere on the web late yesterday and it looked like that sort of structure.

LP structured storms don't produce many CG's from my experience, mainly IC.

Thunder at Morrinsville right now with a decent downpour.