Moist trough 7th to 13th March

[Nev]

Cool radar video Thunder081...
(need admin to turn fb full-screen option on…)

Here's another 6 hr Akld rain-radar accummulation to 4pm today…

MetService 6hr rain-radar accum to 4pm, Mar 12.png

21 mm here today, so 305mm for this event (and mtd).
I see the Pinnacles are also on at least 856mm since Tue arvo…

[Manukau heads obs]

305mm, wow Nev, thats like west coast of the south island rain

[jamie]

305mm, wow Nev, thats like west coast of the south island rain

That can't be good for the grapes in the vineyards there?

[NZstorm]

The Met Service rainfall chart is interesting. The bulk of that rain fell in 1.5hours. Certainly would have justified a severe thunderstorm warning (flash flood).

[Bradley]

Cool radar video Thunder081...
(need admin to turn fb full-screen option on…)

Here's another 6 hr Akld rain-radar accummulation to 4pm today…

MetService 6hr rain-radar accum to 4pm, Mar 12.png

21 mm here today, so 305mm for this event (and mtd).
I see the Pinnacles are also on at least 856mm since Tue arvo…

Nev would the farmers in northland now say the drought is over? I know it hasn't been a month of consistent rain but surely 100mm+ of rain for northland would constituent a drought breaker?

[Nev]

That can't be good for the grapes in the vineyards there?

Yeah, Waiheke's winegrowers probably not quite as 'quietly confident' as they were this time last month. However, one mitigating factor is that most of that rain fell as a series of short-duration deluges, and most (if not all) of the island's vineyards are on hillside slopes with still relatively hard topsoil, allowing for rapid run-off. The deep cracks in our lawns are still there...

[Nev]

Nev would the farmers in northland now say the drought is over? I know it hasn't been a month of consistent rain but surely 100mm+ of rain for northland would constituent a drought breaker?

Not sure why you're asking me, as Waiheke wasn't in the MPI's 'medium-scale adverse event' area… lol
Seriously though, Northland's recent rainfall was probably more like 150-250mm, plus about half as much again during the preceding few weeks. Below is a comparison of NIWA's Soil Moisture Anomaly chart when the medium-scale drought was declared, and yesterday's chart…

NIWA Soil moist. anom. Feb 3 vs Mar 12.gif

However, those rains were probably a bit too late for Northland's maize-growers, and quite a few stock farmers have probably already used up their extra autumn and winter supplementary feed. So I guess some farmers might now need both 'drought' and 'flood' assistance…

[Manukau heads obs]

the issue with Northland was it was like been 8 dry summers in a row, which has put pressure on the region

[Richard]

The drought is well and truly over here 51mm in the manual gauge 35.8mm showing from the paddock gauge. Big difference between the two, the automatic one is only going up by 0.2 every ten mins, this rain is a lot heavier than that

[Nev]

Exceptional rain totals last 7days: Waiheke 326mm, Whitianga 264mm, Kerikeri 254mm, Whangaparaoa 238mm. A quiet spell now for these areas^GG

Somebody forgot to tell Georgina Griffiths that MS's Whitianga Aero gauge failed on Wednesday. NIWA's Whitianga EWS, less than 1km away, actually recorded about 331mm during that time. Also worth noting that MS's Golden Valley AWS, just NE of Waihi, recorded 413mm to midnight last night. And I see the Hunua PWS that David posted earlier also recorded 458mm for this event.

[jamie]

Amazing that the Hunua PWS is actually not even in the Hunua ranges. Its in farm land and I know the area well. I know a farmer just down the road who takes manual readings each month. Ill ask what he got. Either way its an incredible amount of rain to fall in that area.

[Nev]

There's also a Clevedon PWS (Davis) that recorded 349mm for this event.

[NZstorm]

I was driving through the Clevedon area today for work and I could see that there would have been plenty of water across some of those roads. An area to stay clear of when there is a deluge!

[03Stormchaser]

"Obviously a weather bomb is a weather bomb" Phil Goff when blaming the problems around stormwater in Auckland

Sent from my VIE-L09 using Tapatalk

[RWood]

Now we'll have to suffer the term "weather bomb" in perpetuity - ignoramuses.

[Manukau heads obs]

I liked Tasman tempest

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Back from Auckland today after a wet and humid WE up there.
Didn't see much flooding up there as what was depicted on the news, but it did rain, rain with some of my terminology of thundery falls, with warm and humid air with it, of which I'm not really used to. , which led to uncomfortable sleeping overnight.
At the wedding ceremony in Kumeu, the speeches were had to be said quite loudly owing to the rain falling on the roof at the venue.
I heard 3 claps of thunder (one with a dump) but that was all. I expected some more with the rain but that was all.
Anyway good to see a decent rainfall back here at home, with 46mm here from Friday to 4pm this afternoon..

[Orion]

I was in Dunedin over the weekend: light rain or drizzle most of the time there but not too cold, didn't seem to be breezy.
Rivers in Mid-Canterbury seem to be up a very little, and slightly discoloured, compared to Saturday; a bit of water standing in paddocks in lower-lying areas in South Canterbury.
Interesting to compare the later progress of the harvest and the flowering of various garden plants in the south to what's happening here.

[Dean.]

67mm since Saturday here

[Thunder081]

Cool radar video Thunder081...
(need admin to turn fb full-screen option on…)

Here's another 6 hr Akld rain-radar accummulation to 4pm today…

MetService 6hr rain-radar accum to 4pm, Mar 12.png

21 mm here today, so 305mm for this event (and mtd).
I see the Pinnacles are also on at least 856mm since Tue arvo…

Cheers, here's the full rain radar and himawari 8 images for this event.

[snowstormwatcher]

continuous light rain/drizzle here since Saturday morning, 46mm for the event so far.

[spwill]

"Obviously a weather bomb is a weather bomb" Phil Goff when blaming the problems around stormwater in Auckland

Sent from my VIE-L09 using Tapatalk

They can never solve some of those flooding problems, 50mm in an hr is always likely to cause problems anywhere.

[Manukau heads obs]

really great to see those animations!

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

52mm for the event up to 10pm this evening.
Interesting to see what Geraldine has in my rain gauge down there

[Razor]

52mm for the event up to 10pm this evening.
Interesting to see what Geraldine has in my rain gauge down there

63.5mm of perfectly placed and steady rainfall to set us up for autumn. Warm weather coming back too later this week