South Island Storms - 5/12

[Chris W]

There's a dark cloud out to sea that provided a dramatic backdrop against the Port Hills when I drove back to Lyttelton just now. Reasonably bright this side, but just coming onto moderate rain now.

[mikestormchaser]

Yes, spill over rain in the afternoon dampens down the instability.
The set ups where cold upper level air is the major ingredient are more reliable for thunderstorm development especially in December.

Yes I prefer a cold upper trough for Canterbury. And that was my main concern today. However I did think if a storm could get going it might of been OK given the strong shear and DP Today.


Here is the best shot I got today, Steve, Aaron and I gave it a shot and went south of ashburton before cutting inland this evening.. we had to give it a shot because if we didn't then something would of happened...

I total bust day though but nice dark bases observed with the S change

[Chris Raine]

Heavy rain in Southland at 2200 after a day of continuous light rain in the southerly. Falling at 30mm/hr then stopped

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Flooding in the Wellington region with this storm with lots of mill-litres according to the reporter on Checkpoint this afternoon.
85.8ml at Kelburn today, above it's monthly average of 83.2mm
Hutt River up with flooding in Lower Hutt and the Johnsonville Line closed because of a slip.