NZ Weather Forum

Captain Salty wrote:in the low res radar from 6:06 to 6:28 looks like a hook formed in the cell to the east of kaikoura. Is that a tornado signature?

The funnel cloud was filmed around 4:30pm. The area in question is so far from the radar, to accurately see a hook would be almost impossible

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Definitely a nice funnel there. Not enough shear there for persistent updraught but enough to get a funnel cloud going.

Intense thunderstorm here right now with large hail. Its nuts!

very Weird!! I got woken up by a phone call from mum saying about the thunder.. It blew up out of no where south of the city.. In rolleston I went outside and it's dead calm with foggy patches.. And flashes everywhere

Wow!

Saw the flashes while getting up,

Bright flashes and loud thunder observed from Riccarton. Still patches of fog and only a few spits of rain here.

Don't often get storms like this this early in the morning

One of the most active TS's I think have experienced in Christchurch. A real humdinger of a wake up!

What the...Big flashes in the early morning and its cloudy and drizzly outside. This is bizarre. We never get thunderstorms and then we get one at the most unlikely of times. Thats it, I give up.

Rattling the windows like stink! Radar shows it erupted over town. Might just delay the cycle to work...

Yeah very unusual, certainly not forcasted by anyone. Watched it for a while, no bolts. Witnessed from halswell only flashes at times only at 10secs inbetween

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Watching the radar it popped up from nothing 5:30am to a pretty active Tstorm 5:40 when I observed flashes

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Oh yip, a good bit of nowcasting by the metservice. Heh.

Sounds intense; I'd be interested to know the dynamics that caused it to develop

Was wondering what the noise was at first, as there was no thunderstorm forecast. The flashes I saw all seemed like sheet lightning, but tracker map showed lightning strikes.

MS said it weakened over chch but it was a proper thunderstorm south of the city in one article I read. Not sure what they were watching but a very intense TS over opawa.


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Orion wrote: ↑Wed 11/10/2017 08:36 Sounds intense; I'd be interested to know the dynamics that caused it to develop

Southerly change running into some of that moist air that had been hanging around for a couple of days.

dogmelon wrote: ↑Wed 11/10/2017 06:32 Oh yip, a good bit of nowcasting by the metservice. Heh.

And largely CC than CG as it pretty much wasn't showing on Blitzortung.

I'm thinking Lake Ellesmere is partly responsible with the diurnal heat-release cycle...

Willoughby wrote: ↑Wed 11/10/2017 22:42 I'm thinking Lake Ellesmere is partly responsible with the diurnal heat-release cycle...

You could be right there, Will as this was quite an unusual circumstance, and Neil, from most reports that I've seen, it was mostly Cc lightning, so there could been a lot of uplifting.
I got a call from Bob Crowder to say that the lightning woke him up rather than hearing any thunder to later on. He lives around the Cracroft area near PMH.

Infrared satellite loop with Earth Networks lightning overlay


I modified an ECMWF (10/10 12Z model run) sounding for 75km south of Lake Ellesmere (where they showed 400 j/kg CAPE) with a parcel from 966 hPa (elevated convection). EC also depicts Total Totals rose to 55 this morning in the Canterbury region.

Willoughby wrote: ↑Wed 11/10/2017 22:42 I'm thinking Lake Ellesmere is partly responsible with the diurnal heat-release cycle...

I did think this is partly to blame aswel will. Yes there was/ has been some moist air around lately but the surface sea temps from ellesmere would of helped

Any chance banks peninsula helped to get the initial lift?

Brendan and I were talking about this. Also think BP has an influence in these storms. Gfs indicated nothing in the morning that any storm should have formed.

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