General January Weather

[melja]

Over night low of 26C in Rangiora, and some extremely strong NWers, stuff everywhere.

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[Richard]

Winds weren't anything of much concern here, just a stock standard norwestwester that was strong and gusty at times

[Achten]

NWer arrived this morning at 6.24am temp was 12.6, 7.09am 23.6. Going to be hot and windy.

[Chris W]

My bin was downed by the overnight gusts, they can really slam down the hill. 23C when I left home at 6:30am.

[Razor]

Stuff reporting a fairlie (sorry) large fire near Burkes Pass this morning, hinting evacuations may follow later on

Really worrying situation re the risk of fires in the coming days.

[Chris W]

Stuff reporting a fairlie (sorry) large fire near Burkes Pass this morning, hinting evacuations may follow later on

Really worrying situation re the risk of fires in the coming days.

Bugger, hope it doesn't escalate as much as it might.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Not much wind here overnight and much cooler temperatures that were reported in Ashburton and RPA Timaru.
Fresh easterly blowing here at the moment with hazy skies.

[Richard]

The skies are amazingly hazy, can't even see the hills that 20 k's away.
Getting warm again today, up to 29deg, don't think it will top 30.

[Razor]

The skies are amazingly hazy, can't even see the hills that 20 k's away.
Getting warm again today, up to 29deg, don't think it will top 30.

Haze is very thick here. Metservice or niwa suggested Aussie smoke was imminent a day or so back, I expect thats the culprit. Can hardly see the end of Lyttelton harbor from the Port hills and the plains are obscured from the end of town. no mountains today in view despite no cloud cover

[Razor]

Gisborne currently reporting 37 degrees on Metservice. yikes

[cbm]

Gisborne currently reporting 37 degrees on Metservice. yikes

And looks like almost no wind there as the sea breeze fights the Northwester. Holding a steady 28.5 or so here , warm for when a SW is blowing off the 21C or so Tasman sea. It's not a "real" SW, this one.

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[Razor]

Gizzy now an all time record according to NIWA tweet... 38.2

[cbm]

Gizzy now an all time record according to NIWA tweet... 38.2

Is that at a NIWA site, different to the airport?

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[cbm]

Niwa has a site a little up river at Bushmere Rd. Assume it is from that.

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[Richard]

The skies are amazingly hazy, can't even see the hills that 20 k's away.
Getting warm again today, up to 29deg, don't think it will top 30.

Haze is very thick here. Metservice or niwa suggested Aussie smoke was imminent a day or so back, I expect thats the culprit. Can hardly see the end of Lyttelton harbor from the Port hills and the plains are obscured from the end of town. no mountains today in view despite no cloud cover

No I don't think it was smoke, the satellite doesn't show any passing over us, looks as clear as. When I was saying how hazy it was that was when I was in Rangiora and Mt Grey couldn't be seen to the north, when we got home it was 90% clear again, so that was just coastal haze.

[Razor]

Haze is very thick here. Metservice or niwa suggested Aussie smoke was imminent a day or so back, I expect thats the culprit. Can hardly see the end of Lyttelton harbor from the Port hills and the plains are obscured from the end of town. no mountains today in view despite no cloud cover

No I don't think it was smoke, the satellite doesn't show any passing over us, looks as clear as. When I was saying how hazy it was that was when I was in Rangiora and Mt Grey couldn't be seen to the north, when we got home it was 90% clear again, so that was just coastal haze.

Sorry but I beg to differ this was way more significant

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/11913233 ... the-tasman

[Richard]

Not today, its not here yet, but you can see a small blob ready to come our way. If it were smoke it would be smokey here as well, there's no smoke passing over ..yet

todays smoke.png

[Chris W]

It's very humid in my view, I don't see any signs of significant smoke influencing the skies today.

Once we get the NE out of the way this weekend it's going to get really hot.

[NZstorm]

Gisborne had an 850mb temp of 20C today to get that 37C. Impressive reading considering the North Island all time high is 39C.

[Richard]

There was a very thin layer of smoke visible when the sun was setting but no where enough to reduce visablty down to the levels seen today.

[melja]

Very yellow smokey sunset right now In Rangiora, the strange yellow light sure it noticeable again. The fire at Burke's pass could be influencing it on a local level.

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[Razor]

Very yellow smokey sunset right now In Rangiora, the strange yellow light sure it noticeable again. The fire at Burke's pass could be influencing it on a local level.

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Wind was wrong direction for Burkes Pass to make it here. Talking to Banks Peninsula friends they like me are 1p00% this was a recurrence of Australia smoke. Just because it's not on the satellite image is no proof to me. It was too high to be local and came from the NW not off the ocean. From the Port Hills today it was an amazing spectacle

I dont have a photo looking west but it was way worse , you could not see past Hornby

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

A hazy day here in Geraldine today with the 4 Peaks just outlined against the sky ( sorry I didn't have my camera with me) and a sort of smokey sunset especially looking WSW, could probably be because of the Burkes Pass fire?
Today's maximum was 23.9C with a moderate to fresh ENE blowing for much of the day.

[Nev]

Niwa has a site a little up river at Bushmere Rd. Assume it is from that.

Yes, the 38.2C (or more?) yesterday is from NIWA's 7-year-old site about 6.5 km NW of Gisborne Aero, which often records Tmax's around 1-2C higher than the airport.

Gisborne Aero's 37.1C yesterday would be its 3rd highest ever T-max after 38.1C in Jan 1979 and 37.7C in Jan 1956, since records began there in 1937 (although an earlier 1905-1915 site also recored 37.2C in Dec 1907).

Also note that MS's 'heatwave' criteria were met in the last 5 days days of Jan at Gisborne Aero, along with Wairoa, Napier Aero and Hastings.

A few other notable 'heatwaves' in Jan include 6 days at Masterton Aero (23rd-28th), 9 days at Pukaki Aero (20th-28th) and 11 days at Tara Hills, Omarama (18th-28th).

[Richard]

Jan recordings - rainfall 3.4mm
max temp 32 deg 22 nd average 25,0
lowest max 18.2deg 13th
lowest min 3 deg 15th