Frosts 2018

[Richard]

Here we go for another year

Frozen dew on the car roof this morning even though the temp bottom out at 3.4deg

[Simon Culling]

A tweet from Metservice gives the overnight minimums for the 9th/10th March as 1.2*C at Invercargill and 1.6*C at Manapouri Airport. A figure this low at a coastal location would be noteworthy in the UK in what corresponds to our September.

[Richard]

Nothing out of the ordinary for NZ Simon. Go back 15years and every summer saw light frosts during each of the three months, the last few summers though we've not not any

[Simon Culling]

Thanks Richard. A similar location to Invercargill, open to cold blasts from the Arctic in this case, would be Wick Airport which is on the north coast of Scotland. Its average minimum in September is 8.5*C but the record low for the month is actually -2.0*C in a record stretching back to 1930. No date for the record, but more likely to have been recorded at the end of the month.

[Simon Culling]

I am sorry to hog this thread, but tweets from MetService + NIWA give the lows for Saturday morning (17th March) as -0.8*C at Dunedin Airport and -1.8*C at Middlemarch. As these appear to not be unusual, when do the trees in New Zealand start to change colour in your autumn?

[Andy]

Simon - Late March to April here in Central Otago.. but earlier if a very dry year.

[Richard]

A bit later up this way, the further north you go the later than becomes


In spring the odd English oak tree can start to show green in late Aug which is about 6 weeks earlier than the comparable in the UK

[melja]

Tree change well underway most parts I've seen.

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[NZstorm]

May/June in the north.

Ginkgo and Liquidambar are best known for autumn colour in Auckland. Maples don't grow well here.

[Simon Culling]

Thanks for the replies about autumnal colour changes. As is the UK there is a graduated change from south to north over time, although here it is the other way round. A few photos in the general thread would be great to see. Here in the UK there can be quite a range in the onset time each year depending on things such as temperature, timing and severity of frosts and whether the summer and/or autumn are wet/dry etc. but it usually starts sometime in October - so roughly April in NZ seasonal time.

[Richard]

Also not having too much wind during autumn helps retains the leaves on the trees.

[Orion]

Dogwood tree leaves showing reddish colour here now, some other trees showing yellow which does seem as few weeks earlier than usual.

[spwill]

Thanks for the replies about autumnal colour changes. As is the UK there is a graduated change from south to north over time, although here it is the other way round. A few photos in the general thread would be great to see. Here in the UK there can be quite a range in the onset time each year depending on things such as temperature, timing and severity of frosts and whether the summer and/or autumn are wet/dry etc. but it usually starts sometime in October - so roughly April in NZ seasonal time.

The NZ landscape is dominated by evergreens, for a lot of NZ there is not much visual seasonal change with vegetation. Central Otago and Christchurch would be the two main places for Autumn colour/leaf drop.

[Richard]

1.1deg this morning with a bit of ice on the car

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Could be the first frost, here for the year. Down to 1.7C with a bit of frosting on the roof of my truck.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Slight frosting with the temperature dropping down to +0.2C.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Frost overnight but this morning a high cloud layer moved over us, trapping in the cold air and it was only 1.7C at 8:30am, when I got up.
Temperature dipped down to minus 0.6C.

[Andy]

Well it's been nice not to have had any hard frosts till now! -3 to -4 here this morning.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Slight frost here this morning.

[Orion]

White frost on lawn etc.
Air temp. currently +0.9°C

[Richard]

Not a lot of white on the lawn here and same temp - + 0.9deg

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Ditto here, but minus 0.9C.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I think there was a frost here this morning. Got down to minus 0.5C.
I never got up until well after 9am.

[kiwisk8er]

Frost on the roof this morning in Tawa, and Porirua is currently sitting on 4 degrees.

[Richard]

Down to - 2 deg this morning