Here’s what is making the weather headlines today.

THUNDERSTORMS ON TUESDAY – CANTERBURY

Thunderstorms certainly ended up developing for Canterbury yesterday afternoon, around 850 homes lost power in parts of North Canterbury although it is uncertain at this stage if thunderstorms caused the issue but it would seem to be a likely culprit.

Showers initiated about inland parts early afternoon then bigger cells organised by around 3:00pm with one large cell moving into Ashburton. Between 3 and 4pm southerlies really started to ramp up with cells about Mid Canterbury starting to fade, a cell then strengthened about North Canterbury and this developed into the strongest storm of the day moving into or near Oxford then further northwards, at some point this cell started to fade north of Amberley.

Thunderstorms contained heavy showers and hail as they moved through.

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I went chasing after the North Canterbury thunderstorm in particular. I noted the southerly kicking in just south of Christchurch around 3pm and figured the best place looked to be over the other side of the Waimakariri river where the incoming southerly could utilise surface energy (warmer temperatures) to the north. This ended up paying off as I chased a strong cell through Oxford, Ashley Gorge, Glentui, Okuku, Ashley then further north all the way to Waipara.

I experienced decent amounts of forked lightning along the way, plenty of loud thunder and heavy hail showers. When I chase I usually am trying to photograph anything storm related I can with lightning or a tornado being the best one can hope for. Taking photo’s of lightning can be difficult business at times due to thunderstorms naturally containing lots of rain in them, you always get rain on your lens! Then lightning often goes off in one direction while your camera is pointing the other way! This time was no different, but I did manage one good shot at the end of it all.

Enjoy! Aaron

WARM IN THE EAST ON THURSDAY BUT A COLD FRONT IS ON THE WAY

Eastern regions will start to feel a bit warmer again by Thursday afternoon getting into the late teens but it doesn’t last too long as a cold southwest change develops about the far south in the afternoon reaching Canterbury in the evening.

It’s more bark then bite though as this southwest while delivering a few showers and some pretty cold strong winds about the coast, most of it’s energy will be well offshore to the east. In other words it’s just an annoyance for a time for the most part.

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FROST RISK COMING UP

This morning and Friday morning could see light frosts about inland parts of the South Island. Saturday morning has a chance of frosts again in the morning but this time also including inland parts of the North Island.

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