Wild weather whips south

Wednesday, 30 October 2019

MetService's national weather forecast for Wednesday.

A southerly squall racing up New Zealand from the south has dislodged tiles from homes, toppled trampolines, and knocked down a fence in Christchurch on Wednesday evening.

In Wellington, some flights were affected by severe winds around 10pm, with passengers reporting an aborted landing and strong turbulence.

The cold snap had already dropped heavy hail in Oamaru, in North Otago, and caused temperatures to drop by about 12 degrees Celsius.

A shot taken from Kennedy’s Bush looking towards Methven early on Wednesday evening.

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MetService meteorologist Angus Hines said the front went through Oamaru about 4pm, causing temperatures to drop from 22C to 9.6C within an hour. He said peak gusts recorded at the Oamaru Airport were up to 87kmh.

Gusts of 69kmh were recorded in Wellington just before 11pm, while in the hour to midnight a gust of 107kmh was recorded at Mt Kaukau.

Hines said the front was 'really hustling northwards'. It blew through Invercargill about midday, just south of Timaru at 5pm, reaching Christchurch about 6pm, and Wellington by 11pm.

A fallen fence in Christchurch due to the southerly squall on Wednesday.

'Because it's moving fairly rapidly, it's not really accumulating significant amounts of rain at any one location, but when you're underneath it, it probably will be briefly quite heavy, quite intense rain.'

He said it would move up through the North Island on Thursday, but was unlikely to bring as significant weather changes as it had in the south.

Tiles knocked off a roof in Spreydon, Christchurch.

Lifted tiles and solar panels, and some fallen fences were reported in Christchurch as a result of the high winds.

Hail falls in Oamaru on Wednesday afternoon.

MetService meteorologist Rob Kerr said the feature had weakened by early Thursday.

'The showers aren't anywhere near as intense and the push isn't anywhere near as strong. It's losing a lot of its oomph,' he said shortly after 6am Thursday.

'It came from the southwest and was split by the South Island. The bit in the west of the country was already a bit weaker. That's approaching Auckland now. The other half of it is just passing through Gisborne,' Kerr said.

There were a few light showers in Auckland early Thursday. Once the front cleared later in the morning, those would be done.

Auckland is forecast to become fine with a high of 18C and southwesterlies. Southerlies are forecast to die out early in Wellington. A fine day with a 14C high is expected in the capital.

Christchurch had a risk of frosts early Thursday, with the temperature dropping below 1C. A warm day is expected, with a forecast high of 18C.

Kerr said gusts over 90kmh at New Brighton in Christchurch on Wednesday afternoon appeared to be the strongest winds in a populated centre associated with the front.

A gust of nearly 140kmh was recorded at Le Bons Bay on Banks Peninsula in the hour up to 7pm Wednesday, and gusts topped 125kmh at the Kaikōura weather station in the hour to 9pm.

MetService said a strong southwest flow remained over the southeast of the South Island on Thursday, and west-to-southwest winds could approach severe gale strength in exposed places through to 9pm.