General February Weather

[Chris W]

There were absolutely cold spells caused by the SSW, that was very apparent throughout the atmosphere. When the upper vortex moved into the Weddell Sea, multiple times we got more southerlies following from it, when it moved toward South Africa we got more westerlies. Just unfortunate that the aforementioned climate change trend mitigated that.

[cbm]

We will never know. They would barely have had weather forecasting back then. Just barometers. And we have to trust what will have been 1 set of written records had no error, i.e. that it actually happened.

600 BC – First public weather forecasts ...

1860 – Co-ordinated weather forecasting
Fitzroy in England is collecting data and publishing his weather forecasts and the Smithsonian Institution in America is doing the same. Over the next few years, meteorological organisations are set up worldwide.

1861 NZ Government involved in meteorology

1874 Storm warnings issued to ships and harbours in NZ

1882 First weather maps published in NZ

1905 – Ship to shore weather reports...

Source, with further details:

https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/interac ... a-timeline

Thanks. One learns something every day. Thought it would be very hard to produce weather maps when only had access to land based barometric readings.

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[cbm]

The accuracy of the maps must have improved once ships could radio in pressure readings.

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[TonyT]

The accuracy of the maps must have improved once ships could radio in pressure readings.

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In real time yes. But there was a whole endeavour of creating maps for past events from sources available after the fact.

[Cyclone Tracy]

UKMet & Access G 00Z are outliers but they are hinting that the upper trough moving up into the SI this weekend, weakens the stubborn ridge allowing an easterly dip and a subtropical low to ride the dip towards the NI in early March.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Another fine day here with light NE.
Some scattered high cloud.
Today's maximum was 24.2C.

[Awhituobs]

that's not a new thing in the models re the easterly trough, but the models have been flip flopping on it
hopefully it holds this time!

[Awhituobs]

Clouds in Dunedin my daughter just sent me

received_531666580807273.jpeg

[Awhituobs]

ECMWF going all out for a strong easterly trough over the NI next week!
lets see if that holds
we had some easterly surge type shallow convection showers around here today...might be a sign that the ridge is weakening a bit

[Awhituobs]

28.2c here
hottest day of the summer for us (sunny afternoon, sea breeze), dew point 19.5c
we must be getting some of that warm air ahead of the tasman front

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Warm here too, just over 29C, 5C higher than what MS predicted for Timaru.

[Richard]

High overcasts cloud here today with a moderate NW wind, but pleasant temps though with 26deg max

[jamie]

My average high for this month so far is 28.1C. Normal is more like 25-26. The next closest month I can find is January 2008 with 27.8C. The station was an urban station at that time and was notably warmer vs once it moved out to the rural spot here.


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[Chris W]

High overcasts cloud here today with a moderate NW wind, but pleasant temps though with 26deg max

31C driving back through Parnassus way on the way back from Kaikõura, though it cooled to 26C in Greta Valley. Missed a serious crash ahead of us on the Hurunui River bridge on SH1 by less than a minute

Must be some very low cumulative totals for the year now. Chch is looking at about 27mm so far, obviously the North Island is very low as well.

[tornado]

had some showers here today which wasnt expecting.


I see we starting to see the belt of high pressure breaking apart. which means more rain chances. next week at the moment looks interesting.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Dry southerly went through around 8pm. It dropped the temperature of about 7C in half and hour.
Today's maximum was 29.1C.
Various amounts of NW Arch cloud for much of the day slowly moving off to the east.

[Richard]

High overcasts cloud here today with a moderate NW wind, but pleasant temps though with 26deg max

Missed a serious crash ahead of us on the Hurunui River bridge on SH1 by less than a minute

Here we are in 2020 and SH1 still has a one way bridge.

[David]

Drought declared in South Auckland and Waikato today

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Here we are in 2020 and SH1 still has a one way bridge.

There's the one way bridge over the Orari river on SH79, which was bedlam trying to clear traffic after the reopening of the road after the Rangitata River flooding.
Back on subject, a hot day here this afternoon after a cool start. 30.3C at the moment

[cbm]

High overcasts cloud here today with a moderate NW wind, but pleasant temps though with 26deg max

31C driving back through Parnassus way on the way back from Kaikõura, though it cooled to 26C in Greta Valley. Missed a serious crash ahead of us on the Hurunui River bridge on SH1 by less than a minute

Must be some very low cumulative totals for the year now. Chch is looking at about 27mm so far, obviously the North Island is very low as well.

Troutson campground on Northland's West Coast is on 9.8mm YTD. Might be driest of NIWA official sites. Jamie's station just North of Hamilton still on 7.8mm

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[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

The wind had dropped now, coming onto rain with some steady overthrow falls.
Some lightning strike, this evening, according to the Blitz
1.5mm for today.
Warm day with today's maximum being 30.8C and breezy N to NW winds
Mighty NW Arch cloud today.

[Chris Raine]

Front went through Thornbury at 2015 with a gusty westerly change ,Strong NW prior to frontal passage for 4 hours with winds gusting to 30 knots. Only got 0.6mm out of front

[Chris W]

That gusty change came through here at 5am, dry for a while then intermittent light showers. Might be a bowl-first test match at Hagley Oval with largely fair weather for the next few days.

[David]

Very dry starts to the year seem to be quite common these days, but for my station this year is the lowest in the last 11 years.

Jan+Feb totals

Code: Select all

 
 2010 =  95.6
 2011 = 277.8
 2012 = 131.6
 2013 =  29.0
 2014 =  57.0
 2015 =  53.0
 2016 = 215.6
 2017 = 120.0
 2018 = 366.2
 2019 =  58.2
 2020 =  19.8

[Awhituobs]

climate shift (i.e for the upper NI, our climate is more like what the climate was like between the upper NI and Norfolk island more and more (i.e less rain from the maritime westerlies and more sub tropical ridging)