1. Cloudy – 6 to 7/8 cloud and overcast – 8/8 cloud
2. Fine weather – less than 1/2 sky with cloud cover and no precipitation – can also include a veil of high cloud which does not obscure the sun.
3. Gusty refers to individual wind gusts not averaged out. Windspeed is wind, inclusive of gusts averaged out over a 10 minute period. Therefore if one is to mention the term gusty, one must also use an accepted windspeed term. e.g. strong/50 km/h and gusty
4. It is probably more useful to know the timing of the onset of rain.
5. Weather warnings – yes as it enables me to better prepare especially if it is likely to impact on my work as a gardener.
6. Fresh means wind speeds between moderate and strong – as prescribed by meteorology. i.e. 20 to 25 km/h.
7. Isolated – pockets of precipitation only – can be of any intensity, Scattered – generally refers to a “peppering” of light showers.
8.Feels like temperature refers to the dew point . i.e the temperature at which a parcel of air is cooled to the point where air vapour condenses out as water droplets. the drier the original parcel of air the further the dew point is from that of the original parcel of air.
9. Normal frost refers to the temp. below freezing(water) at 4feet above the ground – the height of a standard meterological screen. Ground frost refers to the temperature below freezing point at actual ground level.

In your view, what is the different between cloudy skies and overcast conditions? Cloudy means some cloud and overcast means to me means total grey cloud

* What does fine weather mean to you? Dry

* Is a windspeed of 50 km/ph more useful to you than saying it’s just a gusty wind? Both

* Would you rather know when it’s going to rain or when it’s going to stop? Both are useful

* Would you prefer to have a weather warning than nothing at all?. If your answer is yes, please tell us why. Yes, better to be prepared then to have no warning and bad weather eventuates.

* When describing the wind as fresh, what does that mean to you? A cold wind

* What is the difference between isolated showers and scattered showers? Isolated showers are in pockets and scattered showers are everwhere

* The ‘ feels like’ temperature often describes what do you think? What it feels like outdoors not the actual air temperature

* What is a normal frost and what is a ground frost? Is there a difference? No difference, unless you have frozen fog then you get a hoar frost.

* In your view, what is the different between cloudy skies and overcast conditions?
Cloudy skies have plenty of blue sky in between. Overcast means total cloud cover.

* What does fine weather mean to you?
Lots of sunshine and smallish fluffy clouds. Mild humidity and temp.

* Is a windspeed of 50 km/ph more useful to you than saying it’s just a gusty wind? Yes.

* Would you rather know when it’s going to rain or when it’s going to stop? Both.

* Would you prefer to have a weather warning than nothing at all?. If your answer is yes, please tell us why. Yes but only for extreme weather that is almost a certainty (if this is possible).

* When describing the wind as fresh, what does that mean to you? Strong and cold.

* What is the difference between isolated showers and scattered showers? Isolated to me means heavy but short and in local pockets. Scattered to me means more widespread but not as heavy.

* The ‘ feels like’ temperature often describes what do you think? What is feels like when there is a breeze?

* What is a normal frost and what is a ground frost? Is there a difference? Not sure.

Keep up the great work. This is my go to weather site. Thanks.

Cloudy skies is 80% of the sky or more covered in cloud. Overcast skies is 100% of the sky covered in cloud

Fine weather is when atleast 70-80% of the sky is blue.

There is big diffrence between mean windspeed and gusts in some situtations the gust speed can be double the mean windspeed.

Both.

Yes but only when there is a mod to high risk of severe weather, There has been quite a few systems that simply havent eventuated. I would also like to see severe weather warning more local, Ie August 15 snowstorm there was a warning for all of Canterbury for heavy snow when really heavy low level snow only fell from Mid Canterbury northwards.

A cool breeze around 20-25km.

Isolated showers are isolated Ie there are very few showers one side of town could be dry while the other is wet Scattard showers basicly the same as isolated showers just a few more of them.

Windchill, ie 10 degrees with no wind fells warmer than 15 degrees with a 30km Southerly.

Normal frost?? do you mean air frost which is when the air temp drops below freezing as apposed to a ground frost were the ground temp drops below freezing while the air temp stays above.

* In your view, what is the different between cloudy skies and overcast conditions?
cloudy periods: blue skies with some clouds
overcast: generally full cloud cover and very gloomy.

* What does fine weather mean to you?
clear blue skies with lots of sunshine

* Is a windspeed of 50 km/ph more useful to you than saying it’s just a gusty wind?
both.

* Would you rather know when it’s going to rain or when it’s going to stop?
both.

* Would you prefer to have a weather warning than nothing at all?. If your answer is yes, please tell us why.
weather warning are high probability severe weather.

* When describing the wind as fresh, what does that mean to you?
a fresh cold southerly wind feels a lot colder.

* What is the difference between isolated showers and scattered showers?
isolated shower means very localised whil scattered showers means frequent showers.

* The ‘ feels like’ temperature often describes what do you think?
the actual temps with humidity feel much hotter.

* What is a normal frost and what is a ground frost? Is there a difference?
normal frost is screen frost
ground frost means hard frost

* In your view, what is the different between cloudy skies and overcast conditions?
To me, cloudy skies is when the sky is prodominantly made up of cloud (70%) plus with the sun peaking in and out from time to time. Overcast I associate for more like 90% + cloud in the form of either low or high cloud with almost no chances of sun.
* What does fine weather mean to you?
Fine weather implies to me that the sun is out for the majority of the day with very little cloud about. Often I think ‘dry’ and ‘fine’ get mixed up. eg. If it is an overcast day here with a NW and 25 degrees. I would say it is “Dry and Warm”. If it was only 12 degrees with a biting southerly but the sun was out and blue dome skies that is fine weather.
* Is a windspeed of 50 km/ph more useful to you than saying it’s just a gusty wind?
I think an estimation of wind gusts is always good as a gusty wind has lots of variation.
* Would you rather know when it’s going to rain or when it’s going to stop?
Both are important. A lot of the Metserice forecasts annoy me because of how they will say. “Rain developing. Southwest Change” for example. To people that don’t use or look at models, how do they know exactly when this will be? Sure the rural section will give more detail but radio stations wont go into the detail of this, they just read what the metservice write on the townships/city’s forecast page. I think what could be useful is having an estimation of the total precipitation possible. ie. 1-3mm or 3-5mm or 5-10mm, 10-20mm, 20-50mm etc etc.
* Would you prefer to have a weather warning than nothing at all?. If your answer is yes, please tell us why.
Ofcourse, it is important that people are made aware of possible severe weather events. Once again, there is some lack of accuracy a lot of the time and forecasters tend to play it safe by waiting too long and others like to overestimate for a worse case scenario. Its not easy to get it spot on but warnings should be addressed and perhaps updated more frequently rather than twice a day (like metservice). They should monitor the radars and any vital changes that could influence the current warnings and adjust these when needed, rather than having set times of the day.

* When describing the wind as fresh, what does that mean to you?
Fresh to me means that it has a ‘cool’ feeling to it. In some ways it has too meaning. Right now in CHCH it is 23 degrees where I am with no wind and blue dome skies. Should a NE get up to around 15km/h that would be what I would say as “Fine weather. NE freshening”. So to me, its a breeze than cools the temperature down by no more than 2 or so degrees. It keeps the weather from being unbearable.
* What is the difference between isolated showers and scattered showers?
Isolated showers are very remote and dont cover much of an area. Scattered showers could cover the whole of a region. Scattered showers are more likely to happen than a isolated shower.
* The ‘ feels like’ temperature often describes what do you think?
The temperature that it really feels like. Once again, right now it is 23 degrees with a feels like temperature of 24. It is how we feel with the current weather.
* What is a normal frost and what is a ground frost? Is there a difference?
To be honest, im not exactly sure of this one. Frosts dont interest me. I dislike them. I guess a ground frost is a more severe frost which turns everything white where as a normal forst is when the temperture drops below 0 on a fine clear night.

* In your view, what is the different between cloudy skies and overcast conditions?

Overcast is full cloud cover to me, cloudy skies can range from perhaps more cloud than sun to fully overcast

* What does fine weather mean to you?

No precipitation and not overcast, but can still be cloudy periods.

* Is a windspeed of 50 km/ph more useful to you than saying it’s just a gusty wind?

Depends on the type of wind. As a cyclist I would like to know both the average speed and the speed of the gusts. For example I would much rather be cycling against a NW wind @ 25 km/h gusting to 60 km/h than a NE at 35 km/h gusting to 45 km/h (Being from Christchurch I get to hate the sea breeze!!!)

* Would you rather know when it’s going to rain or when it’s going to stop?

Both???? But if I had to choose I would say when it will start.

* Would you prefer to have a weather warning than nothing at all?. If your answer is yes, please tell us why.

Yes, because no warning is a potential hazard.

* When describing the wind as fresh, what does that mean to you?

Moderate strength, stronger than an average breeze, but not to the point where it called ‘strong’

* What is the difference between isolated showers and scattered showers?

Isolated means completely separated, so I would expect fine breaks between showers, scattered can be overcast and in general the showers should be closer together in my opinion.

* The ‘ feels like’ temperature often describes what do you think?

Takes into account other local weather conditions such as wind speed and humidity and shows what the temperature should ‘feel like’ during these conditions.

* What is a normal frost and what is a ground frost? Is there a difference?

Not 100% sure but I think a normal frost may be a fairly mild frost that freezes on grass etc, but a ground frost also freezes the top layer of soil

* In your view, what is the different between cloudy skies and overcast conditions?

Cloudy = clouds around but fine spells too, overcast is thick continuous cloud.

Question is.. what do you think it means? 🙂

* What does fine weather mean to you?

Sun!!!

* Is a windspeed of 50 km/ph more useful to you than saying it’s just a gusty wind?

I like both, I think its good for the public to learn what gusty means in terms of speed too.. so showing both is good.

* Would you rather know when it’s going to rain or when it’s going to stop?

Both.

* Would you prefer to have a weather warning than nothing at all?. If your answer is yes, please tell us why.

Warning, even if its wrong, it’s always better to have a warning that nothing..
A balance of course… we probably dont need a warning if its %0.1 chance of something etc 🙂

* When describing the wind as fresh, what does that mean to you?

A wind that chills the temperature, usually a southerly but even westerlies can be fresh!

* What is the difference between isolated showers and scattered showers?

Good question, isolated sounds less frequent… to me at least..

* The ‘ feels like’ temperature often describes what do you think?

self explanitory.. includes humidity etc so often when the temp is 20, we might feel like its 25 etc.

* What is a normal frost and what is a ground frost? Is there a difference?

no clue without googling!

* In your view, what is the different between cloudy skies and overcast conditions?
Cloudy skies are blue skies with significant patches of cloud – usually high cloud.
Overcast is a thick blanket of cloud with no blue sky showing

* What does fine weather mean to you?
Not raining and not threatening rain

* Is a windspeed of 50 km/ph more useful to you than saying it’s just a gusty wind?
Windspeed – though terms like hurricane force also give perspective

* Would you rather know when it’s going to rain or when it’s going to stop?
Both! I guess it depends what weather we’re having at the time. If it’s been raining all week I definitely want to know when it’s going to stop!

* Would you prefer to have a weather warning than nothing at all?. If your answer is yes, please tell us why.
For sure, helps with planning

* When describing the wind as fresh, what does that mean to you?
Cold? Not really sure

* What is the difference between isolated showers and scattered showers?
Isolated showers suggest less likelihood of showers at my place, there might be showers in one or two places.
Scattered showers suggest there will be showers around the city.

* The ‘ feels like’ temperature often describes what do you think?
How hot or cold it actually feels. Taking into account things like humidity, wind, etc.
Also, we all know when metservice say it’s 27 degrees it’s taken in the shade at the airport or somewhere stupid, yet most of our thermometers say 32.

* What is a normal frost and what is a ground frost? Is there a difference?
Unsure on this one, maybe a ground frost is a bit crunchy underfoot but a normal frost covers the trees too. Don’t really know.

A question I have….
How do you differentiate between rain and showers?

Again we’d appreciate it if you can take the time to give us some of your ideas.

* In your view, what is the different between cloudy skies and overcast conditions?

* What does fine weather mean to you?
Smiles and happiness.

* Is a windspeed of 50 km/ph more useful to you than saying it’s just a gusty wind?
I hate the Christchurch NE being called a ‘sea breeze’ – it’s worse than a ‘gusty southerly’

* Would you rather know when it’s going to rain or when it’s going to stop?
Does anybody really know the answer to either?

* Would you prefer to have a weather warning than nothing at all?. If your answer is yes, please tell us why.
Warnings are good.

* When describing the wind as fresh, what does that mean to you?
A bitterly cold, cloudy NE wond off the sea.

* What is the difference between isolated showers and scattered showers?
No idea.

* The ‘ feels like’ temperature often describes what do you think?
Invented for Aucklanders to feel like the rest of the country – ie temps of 30C.

* What is a normal frost and what is a ground frost? Is there a difference?
A ground frost is normally on the ground.