spwill wrote: ↑Wed 23/08/2023 11:51
There has been a lot of cold air coming onto NZ from the southern ocean in recent weeks with another cold surge this weekend.
Will Spring be dominated by flows coming off the southern ocean or flow coming off a warming Australia?
I suspect this may continue as next week has more hints of the El Nino phases. In other words very westerly dominated.
That's not to say it won't be a warm spring because it will be warmer out east, but also lots of cold surges. Great for thunderstorms .
Lots of days with high winds especially for the South Island, perhaps a lack of onshore NE cold days that Christchurch is known for.
I was thinking yesterday it would be typical to get into early spring and there's a dusting of snow at sea level.
Apparently it was a Blue sky day in Auckland today and also yesterday according to a man on the wireless this afternoon.
I call them Blue dome day after the late Auger Auer used to call cloudless days back in those days when he did the weather on TV3.
...anyway after a good frost this morning a fine day eventuated but there was barious cirrus forms in the sky to the west this afternoon.
Today's maximum was 15.5C with not much wind, if so from the NE.
NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: ↑Wed 23/08/2023 22:43
Apparently it was a Blue sky day in Auckland today and also yesterday according to a man on the wireless this afternoon.
For Auckland there should be plenty of blue sky around from Saturday into next next week. Plenty of cloud next couple of days, a stable looking pattern for the rest of August.
After a frost, a fine day eventuated after the clearance of high cloud this afternoon.
Some interesting Cc features in the higher cloud this afternoon.
Today's maximum was 13.6C.
Another frost this morning resulting in a blue dome day until about 4.30pm when some high cloud rolled over from the WSW.
A pleasant warm day with today's maximum being 18C. Light NE today but becoming light and variable this evening.
No hint of clagg or '"showers, some heavy" south of Ashburton for today.
spwill wrote: ↑Wed 23/08/2023 11:51
Will Spring be dominated by flows coming off the southern ocean or flow coming off a warming Australia?
I suspect with the current patterns and an elnino influence there will be more air flow from the south. Will make for an interesting thunder season over eastern South island
I can remember the last El Nino period where I expected a lot of thunderstorms with each southerly change, but most of them tended to be dry ones, even though it was a strong El Nino.
Anyway today was a cloudy to partly cloudy day with southerlies and some rain overnight clearing away for a while early afternoon but then clouded over later in the afternoon with a freshening of the southerly.
Today's maximum was 12.6C with 1.2mm of rain.
NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: ↑Sun 27/08/2023 18:22
I can remember the last El Nino period where I expected a lot of thunderstorms with each southerly change, but most of them tended to be dry ones, even though it was a strong El Nino.
I do remember that year John although this year isn't expected to be a strong elnino. More a weaker one.
From past seasons when Canterbury has had some big storms and severe hail storms, it has come off weaker elnino or neutral pattern. Will be a wait and see game
David wrote: ↑Wed 23/08/2023 08:58
Mean daily min this month is at 5.9C locally (first 22 days). Lowest I've recorded for any month was 5.7C in August 2011. Will be interesting to see if that gets beaten - looks like a mostly settled end to the month which means colder nights overall - including 3.1C this morning
On track for this month to beat the previous record. Mean min for first 27 days sits at 5.7C. This morning's min was 5.3C, and the next 2 mornings look likely to be in the 2-4C range. Funny thing is there's only been one slight frost - just been consistently colder at night this month
A frost free Winter here but a colder than normal August.
Some showers in the forecast for here tomorrow with a cold upper trough over the area but there is not much moisture showing , not expecting much here.
I spotted this cloud last Sunday 27 Aug. While driving from Titirangi towards New Lynn. That cloud bulged out from the top within a relative short time.
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I've seen lots of projectible cloud in a boring Sc layer like this.
Probably a bit of a warmth in the cloud form to produce a slight uplift in the cloud layer.
No frost here this morning with it getting down to 1.5C, but it become a fine and warm sunny day with some Ac cloud layers towards the foothills.
Light NE with a maximum of 18.4C.
Last 3 mornings have ended up at 2.1C, 3.1C and 3.5C locally, cementing this month as having the lowest mean daily minimum temperature (5.4C) in my almost 14 year dataset.
Was quite a thick widespread fog this morning, flights were affected at the airport
Christchurch Airport has recorded 17 days this August where the minimum temperature has reached 0.0C or below tying for the previous record of 17 days back in 2000
Bradley wrote: ↑Thu 31/08/2023 10:32
Christchurch Airport has recorded 17 days this August where the minimum temperature has reached 0.0C or below tying for the previous record of 17 days back in 2000
Note that that Chch Aero Aug 2000 record is based 9am reset times. So using the same 9am reset times for this month shows that Chch Aero has only recorded 14 days with Tmins below 0.0°C, plus one at 0.0°C.
Also note that NIWA define an Air Frost temp as being below 0.0°C, i.e. -0.1°C or below...
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