NZ Weather Forum

Some flashes and rumbles here in Amberley in last 15 mins, plus a burst of very heavy rain (not hail) which has now eased back.

Keeping a sharp lookout.
Nothing seen from here.
No substantial sferics on the radio. ?

Razor wrote:Lightning over the back of the Port Hills just now. Show ain't over yet!

But it must be over, Facebook told me it was...

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Haha! Counted four flashes and relatively distant booms to the SE from here in Cashmere area

Active lighting cell passing to the SE of here, lots of flashes

Nothing observed from here and not much as regarding spherical recordings, so I'm giving this event as a non-event here, despite the promising outlook and isolated reports of lightning and it's associated sound, being recorded in various places around the Canterbury region today..
There were lots of factors which made this a very scattered and not an eventful event due to the NW coming through, with lowering humidity levels and the high surface pressure hindering possible development of fruitful onshore development.
I think there will be other chances this month with better scenarios for good thunderstorm development with the current weather patterns .

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:Nothing observed from here and not much as regarding spherical recordings, so I'm giving this event as a non-event here, despite the promising outlook and isolated reports of lightning and it's associated sound, being recorded in various places around the Canterbury region today..
There were lots of factors which made this a very scattered and not an eventful event due to the NW coming through, with lowering humidity levels and the high surface pressure hindering possible development of fruitful onshore development.
I think there will be other chances this month with better scenarios for good thunderstorm development with the current weather patterns .

yes, the air mass too dry yesterday over Canterbury.

Definitely more upper level systems to cross the South Island in the coming weeks given this El Nino style pattern.

Yes what did develop was very isolated indeed, but the storm to my east at about 10.00 last night was certainly up there in terms of activity levels, must have been at least 50+ flashes, a great light show.

Just been talking with a bloke from Greta Valley who reckon that the storm was the best he's seen in the 40 years living there, but whats interesting so little CG's shown on Blitzortung where there were a lot of ground strikes he said.

Richard wrote:Just been talking with a bloke from Greta Valley who reckon that the storm was the best he's seen in the 40 years living there, but whats interesting so little CG's shown on Blitzortung where there were a lot of ground strikes he said.

Use the Lightning trackers as a rough guide at best.

Actually, today looks a better day for thunderstorms than yesterday, with conditions etc. on the surface.

Richard wrote:Just been talking with a bloke from Greta Valley who reckon that the storm was the best he's seen in the 40 years living there, but whats interesting so little CG's shown on Blitzortung where there were a lot of ground strikes he said.

One thing with New Zealand Lightning that I have noticed with the data coming back from Blitzortung is that our Lightning especially on Mediocre setups like yesterday is that the amperage from the Lightning strikes is very weak and the the wave that is created doesnt travel much before it cant be picked up at all.
More stations need to be added in NZ if this is to be fixed.

It just the kind of thing that's unique to NZ from other countries, as this problem doesn't exist in the States or Europe where there is a larger landmass and thermal distribution is much greater giving rise to better convection and lapse rates, which then in turn gives stronger lightning waveforms.

But yes as Simon mentioned, Lightning networks should be used as a guide, but they will only get better if more people participate in them.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:Actually, today looks a better day for thunderstorms than yesterday, with conditions etc. on the surface.

Interesting that the Metservice want absolutely nothing to do with thunderstorms for Canterbury today? I wonder whether we are missing something?

Bradley wrote:

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:Actually, today looks a better day for thunderstorms than yesterday, with conditions etc. on the surface.

Interesting that the Metservice want absolutely nothing to do with thunderstorms for Canterbury today? I wonder whether we are missing something?

No Risk today as upper atmosphere is too stable thats why and sfc dps are too low in relation to the sfc temp.

Bradley wrote:
Interesting that the Metservice want absolutely nothing to do with thunderstorms for Canterbury today? I wonder whether we are missing something?

Yes, it was an interesting fact that there were thunderstorms around, yesterday, but generally the day was a warm NW day and any thunderstorm activity was a side issue to the thunder symbol that they had on their website for Christchurch for most of the day, yesterday.

Had a good thunderstorm at Peel Forest yesterday afternoon/evening.Moved off Mt Peel towards the Mayfield area.

Mt Peel looked good when I was in Geraldine on the Wednesday.
Anyway, today looking dark towards TC and I'm pretty sure I have heard a distant clap of thunder

Tornado Tim wrote:

Richard wrote:Just been talking with a bloke from Greta Valley who reckon that the storm was the best he's seen in the 40 years living there, but whats interesting so little CG's shown on Blitzortung where there were a lot of ground strikes he said.

One thing with New Zealand Lightning that I have noticed with the data coming back from Blitzortung is that our Lightning especially on Mediocre setups like yesterday is that the amperage from the Lightning strikes is very weak and the the wave that is created doesnt travel much before it cant be picked up at all.
More stations need to be added in NZ if this is to be fixed.

It just the kind of thing that's unique to NZ from other countries, as this problem doesn't exist in the States or Europe where there is a larger landmass and thermal distribution is much greater giving rise to better convection and lapse rates, which then in turn gives stronger lightning waveforms.

But yes as Simon mentioned, Lightning networks should be used as a guide, but they will only get better if more people participate in them.

That makes a lot of sense Tim, so its the fact that we are a set of small islands that limits amperage, so even though NZ discharges are weak when compared to continental landmasses has that nothing to do with frequency of strikes as last night they were going off every 5 to 10 seconds. Thats the part i dont under stand, the amperage is weak the discharges were frequent.

Christchurch Airport has had 13mm in the last hour, turning into a nice wee rain event this one

Richard wrote: so its the fact that we are a set of small islands that limits amperage, so even though NZ discharges are weak when compared to continental landmasses has that nothing to do with frequency of strikes as last night they were going off every 5 to 10 seconds. Thats the part i dont under stand, the amperage is weak the discharges were frequent.

5 to 10 seconds is not frequent compared to what happens in continents where a good storm cell will put out multiple strikes per second (IC as well as CG). A decent NZ cell can produce lightning every 2-3 seconds but this summer season has been lacking.


NZ doesn't get much instability due to geography but we do get dynamic lift off jet streams and shortwaves (divergence). Wind shear also enhances lift as does topography......which all helps with lightning generation.

I wonder if we can convince MS to share lightning strikes on their website? They have a comprehensive network..

Pretty sure that Transpower own the lightning detection network that MS use…

Nev wrote:Pretty sure that Transpower own the lightning detection network that MS use…

Indeed, MS do not own/operate one.