High Risk storms Canterbury 4thNov

[darcyplumb]

Ashburton Public Library closed until further notice due to internal flooding. Also Formosa Restaurant dealing with water that’s entered the building from the street.

Edit - Kmart also closed until further notice. Water throughout the entire shop.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Not long back from watching the Timaru storm develop in the hills beyond.
Took lots of photos of the development.
Heard lots of thunder but only observed one cloud to cloud flash of lightning.
A brief gust front developed on this but the main content of the storm as it moved north, went out to sea.
All died down now and calm.Waiting for the next one.

[Dean.]

30mm in the gauge for the hour long storm

[dogmelon]

Thunderstorm corridor delievers again. Chc anti-storm force shield holds firm once more.

[mikestormchaser]

Great chase day. Didn't disappoint! Headed south then inland from Ealing to catch the first storm of the day then decided to go for the ashburton storm which didn't disappoint either. We were in the middle of the core of that ashburton storm with huge amounts of rain and heaps of hail but not big. Perhaps 10mm. Once that past I was able to capture one IC ightning bolt. Then another big fork which dropped in the field beside us. Gunshot thunder!!
We then headed back south to the timaru storm which was actually part of the southerly flick that was due this evening.

Here are three shots from today.

[Richard]

I was in CHCH so decided to pick up daughter #2 and head to Rakaia and from there we turned towards the coast near Seadown, we were given a wonderful display of lightning which my daughter caught many shots of with her fancy super doper iphone twin turbo camera. We were quite happy to stay on the edge of the Ashburton storm.

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[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Here's a photo of the Timaru storm from McKenzies Road south of Geraldine.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

2 more pictures of the earlier development of the Timaru storm taken from the Downs.

[mikestormchaser]

Awesome to see you out chasing John!

[Storm Struck]

Brilliant captures by you all , Richard I think you may have to upgrade your phone to an iPhone for chase purposes. Magnificent shots.

Ended up taking to the road, was going to stay close to Christchurch initially on those heavier cells near West Melton.
But then headed south to meet another chaser at the turnoff to Bankside near Rakaia.
Felt this was a good spot on the dry side for potential funnels or a tornado to form.
The first photo shows a funnel column that lasted about 2 minutes, this was ahead of the main storm but to the right being sucked in to the storm.
A core did develop overhead with some brief hailstones.
Having witnessed plenty of CG bolts driving there, didn't manage to capture any on the phone.
But once the storm started a new TCU head went up closer to Lincoln and Banks Peninsula.
So SE towards Tai tapu before deciding to sit a re assess.

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Funnel column on the lower right

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Storm cell to the north of Ashburton

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Big TCU head going up

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Awesome to see you out chasing John!

Yes, I thought I would get out there and especially as my truck need a run, so why not.
Remember that time I chased that tornado in Halswell back in early 2000's when I chased it in a Morris Minor, just after getting a haircut
I wonder what people like Reed Timmer would think about that these days
...anyway another picture from today.

[mikestormchaser]

Awesome to see you out chasing John!

Yes, I thought I would get out there and especially as my truck need a run, so why not.
Remember that time I chased that tornado in Halswell back in early 2000's when I chased it in a Morris Minor, just after getting a haircut
I wonder what people like Reed Timmer would think about that these days
...anyway another picture from today.

Yes I do remember that John. Good times getting a haircut between two thunderstorms that day. Welcome to come out if you can with us and if things align. A Canterbury weather meet is due!