September has been a rough month across New Zealand – from an environmental point of view.

The massive 7.1 quake on September 4th changed the lives of many Cantabrians and as aftershocks continue to rattle the region almost a month later locals can be thankful that the weather hasn’t turned on them too.

But other regions haven’t been so lucky.

Southland took the brunt of the very large storm that hit New Zealand last week.  The region was closet to the storm and was hit not only by gales and heavy snow but also a deadly windchill that wiped out hundreds of thousands of lambs.

The storm also brought down trees, powerlines, lifted roofs and flattened sheds.  Lightning hit trees, powerlines and houses while tornados made localised damage across Auckland, Waikato and Taranaki.

That same storm help lift the entire roaring 40s up and over New Zealand bringing gales and thunderstorms across the nation.

But conditions changed last weekend and the weather pattern heading into October looks far more settled – at least the first week or so does.

September was a wild month following, what has so far been, a fairly quiet 2010 weather and nature-wise.