NZ Weather Forum

Your big cg must have been the one near me. ~0.5 sec flash to thunder. Loud thunder!

It was a CG looked to have hit the sugarloaf tower, was in that direction I'm in southern Christchurch.
The lightning app which is never hugely accurate picked one over Governors Bay.
No shots unfortunately but a nice surprise to wake up to, initially my post on Friday was showing thunderstorms for Monday afternoon.
However over the weekend showed most of the activity offshore as the MS points out.

Thunderstorms in rolleston. Hail aswel. Got a couple photos so far but nothing to right home about

Just a strong wind change and rain here - 7.6mm

Razor wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 00:38 Cracking good thunder and lightning, Halswell. Woke us up well and truly

I went to bed around 10pm, before I did I went on the MS website (I often ride my bike to work) as I wanted to see if it was going to be dry in the morning. There was no mention or rain symbols for the next 12 hours to midday today.

Incredible to wake up to booming thunder and absolute pouring rain at 2am. Can't believe on looking at the Radar that MS couldn't see it

What a night, 2 hours of intense thunderstorms from midnight followed by a pre dawn Aurora intense enough to be seen with the naked eye.

JP. wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 08:34 Can't believe on looking at the Radar that MS couldn't see it

MS have posted rain radar equipment got struck by lightning last night and was out of action

Razor wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 08:41

JP. wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 08:34 Can't believe on looking at the Radar that MS couldn't see it

MS have posted rain radar equipment got struck by lightning last night and was out of action

MS said "one" got hit by lightning. The radar was still operational on the site as I was watching it mid thunderstorm

MetService meteorologist Jessie Owens said one of their Christchurch rain radars went out as the thunderstorm rolled in, “it most likely got hit by lightning.”

Very interesting night. I did think looking at the models earlier yesterday evening I thought their might be a chance of heavy showers/ hail last night but didn't give it much attention given timing. but their you go. Sometimes you get a surprise.

April seems to deliver a night storm quite often the last few years.

After my last post last night I had just gone back to bed and shut my eyes when there was another bright flash and instant thunder, very heavy rain mixed with small hail.
There were several close CC bolts, but the camera couldn't pick up anything decent.
Interesting to note the southerly arrived about 11pm last night and the radar showed the activity in a typical SW offshore fashion so didn't think much of it.
The cells built up over land around Rakaia northwards very rapidly, and for a good 2 hours they kept reforming very unusual.

There's another strong cold flick on Wednesday morning which might bring some heavy showers and hail, maybe some thunder although it will be around 5am.

Just come online and didn't know anything about the thunderstorm until I read it on STUFF's page.
What a surprise.
Didn't expect anything to come off from the SW change last night. Nothing here except for a few gusts of wind and clear skies following.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 14:12 Just come online and didn't know anything about the thunderstorm until I read it on STUFF's page.
What a surprise.
Didn't expect anything to come off from the SW change last night. Nothing here except for a few gusts of wind and clear skies following.

April is proving to be a good month for a night storm however last night was unusual. Storms started firering from 12 30 am and kept forming until about 3am.
There were multiple thunderstorms about from about rakaia to north Canterbury.
I would have called it thunderstorm playground

About 3 separate storms came over rolleston, then dying and revigorating over lincoln/ chch.
Hail accompanied the storms, some decent pea size and apparently marble size in oxford

mikestormchaser wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 17:08 April is proving to be a good month for a night storm however last night was unusual. Storms started firing from 12 30 am and kept forming until about 3am.
There were multiple thunderstorms about from about rakaia to north Canterbury.
I would have called it thunderstorm playground
About 3 separate storms came over rolleston, then dying and revigorating over lincoln/ chch.
Hail accompanied the storms, some decent pea size and apparently marble size in oxford

Might have to move back to West Melton
Nothing here and I did go out to the street about 10pm and looked north just incase their might of been a flash but nothing even though it was calm and the skies were mainly clear overhead.
Good name "Thunderstorm Playground" for episodes like this
It has happened in the past that thunderstorms have developed in that area just coming 'out of the blue' or should I say black??

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 17:50

mikestormchaser wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 17:08 April is proving to be a good month for a night storm however last night was unusual. Storms started firing from 12 30 am and kept forming until about 3am.
There were multiple thunderstorms about from about rakaia to north Canterbury.
I would have called it thunderstorm playground
About 3 separate storms came over rolleston, then dying and revigorating over lincoln/ chch.
Hail accompanied the storms, some decent pea size and apparently marble size in oxford

Might have to move back to West Melton
Nothing here and I did go out to the street about 10pm and looked north just incase their might of been a flash but nothing even though it was calm and the skies were mainly clear overhead.
Good name "Thunderstorm Playground" for episodes like this
It has happened in the past that thunderstorms have developed in that area just coming 'out of the blue' or should I say black??

The southerly had only hit around 10 30pm last night. The storms developed out west of darfield at midnight and came over a west to NE direction. Much the same as what you normally see at mt peel then move towards ashburton sernario however just further north instead.

mikestormchaser wrote: ↑Mon 24/04/2023 22:49 The southerly had only hit around 10 30pm last night. The storms developed out west of darfield at midnight and came over a west to NE direction. Much the same as what you normally see at mt peel then move towards ashburton scenario however just further north instead.

Interesting
Interesting NW skies here yesterday prior to the southerly change as photographed in yesterday's report with cirrus forms showing some instability in them. Must of been some trigger to establish those storms moving out eastward in the atmos other than the traditional coastal NE or onshore wind flow? Possibly a sudden drop in coldness in the upper atmos, hitting the rather warm surface temperatures at the time ?
...anyway. It resulted in a fine and sunny but cool day here when I was expecting clagg Light winds between SW and the south.
15.6C for today.
Another photo from yesterday.

Down to 7C here this morning.

Dropped to 5.4 here, only 0.6 off my record low for April.

After an air frost this morning, the day become warm and fine with some strong NW winds and NW lenticular clouds.
23.5C the maximum for today climbing up from 1.1C this morning.
NW winds freshening again later this evening.

Mild initially overnight with today's maximum of 17.6C recorded before the cooler southerly change came through during the early hours with 0.7mm of rain falling. Daytime maximum was 16.1C with mostly partly cloudy skies and a light easterly this afternoon.

There might be a high over NZ, but watching TV1 Weather, I could see what looks like a strong and very cold southerly/southwesterly outbreak over the seas well to the east of NZ. (but in similar latitudes) The flow's been persisting there for the last few days.

No "Frost of Fog" here this morning but a totally fine blue dome day with not much wind. 18.1c for today.

Looks like a wet week or so setting up for many. Looks pretty messy but more flooding likely for some.

No "Frost of Fog" here this morning, again, but a totally fine blue dome day with not much wind. 18.6c for today.

A bit of fog around today here. I see that the Coromandel is in for some more unwanted rain

Fog overnight and this morning slowly lifting. Fine and blue dome above. Fog moved in this evening but thinned out later.
14.6C the maximum for today.