Massive storm, the size of Australia, on its way to New Zealand

Just about Noon here.
Yes it has been windy, and we had a thunderstorm pass through about an hour ago, didn' t see any lightening.
Some blue patches in the sky, "squally showers" just about describes it perfectly.
I drove down the beach front alittle while ago, nothing un-toward, choppy sea, brownish grey colour.

Is it here yet?

Odd, looks like the first part of that movie day after tomorrow. Think I herd something about that movie lately with the stall of the gulf stream. Wonder if this is the sign of a bad winter.

Thunder storm has been going for about 10-15 mins in Wellywood, nothing extra-ordinary with spring I don't believe. See what pans out. Pretty lax bout it eh?

Massive storm goes viral

Meanwhile, as well as 'wreaking havoc' across NZ

www.nzherald.co.nz...

the system has also affected Tassy

www.themercury.com.au...

I blame New Zealand.

If it didn't keep moving all over the show, it'd be safe and sound on the other side of Australia.

reply to post by Misoir

Waiting on the Conspiracy extremists to come on here and say it is HAARP

I don't think it is HAARP, but the weather is certainly odd this year. New York City and New Jersey had Tornadoes yesterday?!?!? The first time since 1985!

We were forecast for an extremely busy Hurricane season here in the SE US, but we have barely been impacted by 1 so far. There were a couple of extremely intense storms, but they steered nicely out into the Atlantic and away from the economic centers of the East Coast.

I don't believe in the Chemtrail stuff, and I believe HAARP is a program, but not used for weather modification. Maybe this is just an odd year for weather? It happens from time to time.

Originally posted by Essan
It's a big area of low pressure. That's all. Because it's so big, isobars are't very tight so winds won't be that strong nor rain especially intense. It's the little storms that are worse.

Although this storm has probably had excessive hype, the isobars were still packed pretty tight out in the Tasman. They lined up to produce the longest fetch I've seen in a long time, creating some sizeable swell out on the West Coast. Too bad the wind is still howling onshore, both on NZ's West Coast and around Shipsterns Bluff in Tassie.

We had some intense storms here in Auckland last night as a band of thunderstorms pushed through.

I was with a freind yesterday watching some kitesurfers on the Waitemata Harbour near the NW Motorway in Auckland. We watched as the first of a series of massive fronts came in from the West. These were part of the Massive storm, the size of Australia, on its way to New Zealand. We thought we'd stick around, as it could get pretty interesting.

Sure enough, the wind kept rising. Then one of the kitersurfers caught an edge and fell over, only to be dragged face first another 15 metres by his kite. It looked like he got control, until his kite started spinning and he was getting dragged again. After another 10 metres is kite was released, only to fly about 100 metres before landing in some mangroves right beside the motorway. It was dramatic stuff!

Luckily the kite stayed put and didn't fly onto the motorway, which could have been devestating in the heavy flow of traffic. We then proceeded to watch multiple lightning strikes and get buffeted by some intense winds when, naturally, we went to the summit of Mt Eden (the highest of the many volcanic cones in the region) to get a good view . It got crazy for a few seconds when we were on our way up, getting pelted with sticks and small branches. I'm just glad it wasn't my car

In hindsight, going to the summit may have been foolish, but it was worth it. It's always good to be amazed and belittled by the power of nature every now and then (when you come out safely, of course).

Well it hit us around 4:30ish I think yesterday. Lots of low black cloud and strong winds came over the local mountain, only 4 or 5 lightning flashes, nothing to extreme, however...

Around 5:30 we had a HUGE, and Ive been in a cyclone and some hefty weather before but ive never been scared like this, this huge gust of wind hit the town, I mean every window creeked it was like a bomb had gone off in the front yard literally. We scampered around to get some windows open to equalize the house and pulled curtains to catch any possible flying glass it was that much of a shock. It lasted all of about a minute before dying back down into a solid bluster, but it reminded me of that old footage of a derelict house being hit by a nuclear blasts shock wave... sure it wasnt that strong but it sure felt like it.

Dad had just gone out to put the horse back when it hit and it bowled him right over. Damn scary. Heck it even blew some steel framework a few meters along the ground out near the garage.

Later that night we noticed the neighbors 20 foot high avocado had been totaled into our fence, the far side branchs had basically been clean snapped off and it all just fell straight down near its trunk, no real damage but theyve cut the tree out completely this morning. A few other neighbors have trees snapped, but we surprisingly have no tree damage.

Been very blustery today but nothing quite like the sudden blast we got last night. Kinda reminded me of when Cyclone Bola hit us when I was a kid up in Auckland.

Our UHF aerials getting a real thrashing... and oddly enough about 15 minutes before the storm hit one of our cats went missing, turned out she was hiding in a small space between the sofa and the wall... why I dont know, maybe she knew that huge blast was coming. Interestingly according to my brother in Auckland they also had a sudden blast hit them only a little bit earlier, must have been traveling at an amazing speed.

Beautiful blue skies here in inland Canterbury. The winds, usual nor'westers, have just begun to blow. Friends in Southland have been sending me pics of their huge snowfalls - and apparently the local stadium's roof collapsed earlier as the weight of the snow was too much.

Found news story to back up stadium goss: www.stuff.co.nz...

reply to post by BigfootNZ


Sounds like you were hit by a microburst (or downburst, it may not have been so micro...). May I ask where in the country you are? I got caught up in some intense weather activity also. That may have been likely caused by travelling to the summit of Mt Eden, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it

Originally posted by nightrun

Looks more like Queensland is copping a storm the size of New Zealand!
www.bom.gov.au...
I think we're in a La Nina period too. Will be an interesting few months ahead.

Whatever size it is, or whenever it will come, it pays to take heed of such meterological warnings and be prepared pragmatically. Find out if you are living in low laying geological areas, study the flood patterns, nail everything down. Avoid travel when the warnings get more dire. Spare food, water and medicines will be handy.

When it hits, stay safe always and never play heroes, be responsible, for there had been ample warnings already. A prayer of two helps too. Good Luck and Cheers! :-)

I went out to the west coast of auckland, Piha. At 1am the wind was strong enough to almost pick you up, the waves washed up till the dunes (seemed like it was not going to stop) and the fury of the sea was intense. Waves were absolutely huge, it was a visceral experience... immense power and something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Before the storm hit I was watching it on aviation radar systems, the clouds were over 50,000ft high at a low longditude, below the south island, considering the troposphere is lower around the poles at around 20-30,000ft, it was at its absolute limits - pretty much tropical cloud heights, something I have not seen before.
Today was very windy, there has been trees breaking and branches scattering everywhere throughout the weekend, the river waikato flooded a few roads down in huntly while I was down there on saturday, the country has recently been walloped, shaken and drenched!

Snow-laden Southland schools and businesses were last night considering closure after copping the worst of a three-day storm that lashed the country.

Emergency management teams were last night assessing buildings in Invercargill after exceptionally heavy snowfall in the southern city.

www.stuff.co.nz...

Originally posted by Curious and Concerned
reply to post by BigfootNZ

 

Sounds like you were hit by a microburst (or downburst, it may not have been so micro...). May I ask where in the country you are? I got caught up in some intense weather activity also. That may have been likely caused by travelling to the summit of Mt Eden, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it

Oh Waikato, about 30 minutes drive south from Hamilton. But yeah ive heard of microbursts never crossed my mind it could have been one. It was quite a scary experience i must say, i doubt the one we had here was the same one my brother experienced up in Auckland, I mean for that to happen the winds would have been traveling at a huge speed to go around 300km in under a few minutes or so (without knowing exact times its pointless to conjecture anyway ).

We live close to a decent sized mountain and if a storm comes over it in our direction the wind often drops rapidly down the slope as it passes over to our side so it might have been a contributing factor... its funny being outside and suddenly the temperature drops 5-10 degrees and a wind kicks up instantly, you look up and bingo theres grey clouds peaking over the summit.

Guess it was just a combination of many things building each other up.

Been pretty damn blustery the last 2 days sure is a big weather system, although thats the New Zealand weather for you... "four seasons in one day", wouldnt have it any other way personally.

Another sleepless night, 120kmph westerly winds through Cook Strait, might get a decent afternoon today, then Gales and rain back tommorrow
This usually happens in October, I hope we don't have to put up with this for another 5 weeks

I'l hold my hand up and admot I downplayed this system. Been a pretty wild week in NZ. And headline news on my weather news blog today.

NZ Storm continues its carnage

Gales,snow and more to come

hopefully the storm will miss New Zealand because it thought it was in the wrong part of the world.