General October Weather

[Simon Culling]

I also enjoy reading your daily weather entries, John. I am beginning to get a feel for the weather in your particular part of New Zealand from following these daily accounts and I am especially interested in finding out more about the effects of the NW flow which seems to be quite common. It seems to have given you a few nice warm spring days this year.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Thanks for that Simon.
We have had one or two warm days here, we seem to be warmer than the coastal town of Timaru and have different rainfall totals as compared to what is recorded at the airport at Levels. We get the NW winds but don't seem to be as severe as what north and south of Geraldine.
As from my reports ,it's bit of a frost haven here too in Winter, whereas up on the "Downs" it can be frost free on the odd occasion.
...anyway today was a rather cloudy day after slight frosting this morning. Max was 16.8C around noon when it was sunny. Low cloud later this afternoon and evening with NE winds.

[Richard]

I am especially interested in finding out more about the effects of the NW flow which seems to be quite common. It seems to have given you a few nice warm spring days this year.

My observation of how the westerly quarter wind flow effects Canterbury, South Canterbury is downwind from the tallest section of the Southern Alps which means during periods of light wind flow these winds tend not to reach the eastern coast. Northern Canterbury on the other hand in down wind from where the alps reduce in height, meaning that light wind flow periods influence my area more so than at the other end of Canterbury.

[Awhituobs]

the NW flow coming through Cook Straight bends down the coastline and contributes to the stubborn coastal NE wind
yes?

[TonyT]

the NW flow coming through Cook Straight bends down the coastline and contributes to the stubborn coastal NE wind
yes?

To a greater or lesser degree for every given situation, yes. But the main driver of the NE is the lee trough created by the upper level westerly flow over the ranges.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Just come back from a flight in a private aeroplane around Mt. Cook/Aoraki.
Very cloudy on the west side of the Alps so will be interesting to see what happens with the current weather system coming in.
Here's an interesting shot of a bit of layer cloud over the top of Mt. Cook/Aoraki.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

A fine but hazy day for our flight around Mt. Cook with low cloud across the Tasman Sea towards the Southern Alps and higher cloud layers further up from the incoming system.
Various cloud low cloud form draping over the hills covered with snow as well.
Mild though. Back in Geraldine it was 17.2C in cloudy conditions.

[spwill]

Modelling has plenty of humid air coming our way in a weeks time.

Some rain and possible thunder here later today/early tomorrow morning, mainly fine tomorrow.

[Awhituobs]

good to see people in the south island making the most of things

[Orion]

NW breeze today, gusty at times;
rain hitting north- and west-facing windows at the moment and temp. dropping, currently 18.0°C.

[Awhituobs]

we had a big sea turtle show up on our west coast beach
sure signs of la nina

[Orion]

^ Interesting!

[Awhituobs]

DOC rescue we organised

[mikestormchaser]

Risk of thunder timaru/ ashburton mid Canterbury tomorrow afternoon. Not a big day but a low risk.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Will keep an eye out to see what happens.
Basically a fine day here today with stretched out rainband cloud extending out from the west. (Thank goodness we did the flight yesterday)
West to NW winds here this afternoon but easing away later.
A shower from the west from one of those rainbands delivered 1.1mm this afternoon.
Today's maximum was 22C.

[Simon Culling]

Not a bad day for you on Sunday, John - with that NW wind again. According to the NIWA twitter feed, the temperature hit 24.9°C in Riccarton and 22.8°C in Dunedin. This time of year relates to mid-April here in the UK and that would be close to record breaking temperatures for that part of the year.

[David]

Picked up 22mm here overnight , much appreciated as everything was starting to dry out. Even a few rumbles around for a time.

[Awhituobs]

Ricky had over 30mm
and lots of lightning strikes

[ricky]

Ricky had over 30mm
and lots of lightning strikes

Only a few lightning strikes with very loud thunder

Also a damaged cable on the roof somewhere with water exiting the lower end on top of the lightning detector! Leading to a couple of hours in the workshop making emergency repairs at 4am..

[Awhituobs]

ah..so those were false strikes...I was like wondering

[David]

Wow, 58mm at Mangatangi Reservoir! Levels will be above average after that for the first time in a few years

[spwill]

A couple of very close lightning strikes here, big flashes and very loud thunder to wake all of Mt Eden up around 4 am. A heavy downpour here.
Looks like North Waikato got plenty of lightning early morning.

Amazing to see that turtle Brian.

[Cyclone Tracy]

23mm locally in the last 24 hours, a few claps of thunder. Rainfall rate was briefly 113mm/h around 4am.

[Chris W]

Good thunder risk for mid-Canterbury this afternoon, uppers are not super cold so not sure how much hail risk there is but everything else seems to be there and timing is good. Already getting some good heating in and Chch airport already reporting a light NE which admittedly could be remnant from yesterday but it's good nonetheless.

Editing as MS have gone low risk severe, can't say I'm seeing that but I'm not as qualified as they are

https://www.metservice.com/warnings/thu ... rm-outlook

[darcyplumb]

Already 17 degrees in Ashburton, some good daytime heating occurring. Hoping for a good storm this afternoon.