J07

These diurnal ranges have got started over here....Christchurch Airport (a few miles from the coast) had a low this morning of -3.5C and a high of 19.5C, giving a range of 23C.

Continued good weather. Nationwide high of 23C in Hanmer Springs. 16C here, and fine. Molesworth, a high country sheep station, at one point recorded 20C with dewpoints of -16C. That's an RH of 8%.

Yes, Spring is good for diurnal ranges, better than autumn. I keep an eye on Australia over the next few months, they can pull off some good ones.

Rather amazing weather in the South Island today. Christchurch hit 22C with dewpoints at -8C. The coast a few miles from the city hit only 12C with 10C dewpoints. RH of 14% at Mount Cook. Non stop sun for North Island.

High of 15C, sunny all day again. Breezy northerly. Dewpoints of -14C recorded down south, 12/M014 to be precise, so quite warm and dry (relative humidity of 17%) - good for drying washing!

Temperatures a few degrees below average for pretty much everywhere, but also pretty much sunny for the whole country. Conditions not expected to change over the next few days.

Very interesting read. Pilots often complain about the forecast, regardless of the country. Swap "Met Office" for "Met Service" or "Bureau of Meteorology" and you have yourself a realistic conversation that may take place in NZ or Aus. I did have a snigger at this though considering the thread that we already have complaining about weather presenters! The Met Office is indispensable. I trust in meteorologists more than I will ever trust in amateurs, no matter how experienced or skilled. This is just because I know meteorologists know their stuff from the ground up, the basics - no matter how dry and boring, are likely ingrained in their minds. Now tell me this - how many "met geeks" would carry on doing what they do if they had to derive the vorticity equation on a few sheets of A4 paper? Probably not that many. And fair enough, because it's pretty damn boring. But it is important for a grasp of the fundamentals. There's something to be said for an understanding of the fundamental physical processes that occur in the atmosphere - yes I am talking about thermodynamics and fluid dynamics - and being able to take those up through levels of complexity when considering an analysis or forecast. I'd take that skill any day over a "model watcher", and really that's the way it's likely to be always.

Our high was 13C and then we had the southerly change. Hail showers in some places and snow to something like 600m. Still had plenty of sunshine here today though.

Very little happened today. Sunshine all day long, some gusty northwesterly winds and a high of 15C.

Just read our August 2009 climate summary. Wettest place for the month was Milford with 852 mm. Driest place was Waipawa with 8 mm. Yes, the wettest place was over 100 times wetter than the driest place... Highest temperature was 26C, lowest was -9C. Not a bad spread of 35C there! Highest one-day rainfall was 260mm. I note it took trebor several weeks to get a figure like that this month!

Summer index for Wellington, New Zealand for last two "summers"* : 2007-2008: 290 2008-2009: 272 07/08 was considered the best summer for 10 years, both summers were quite sunny, pushing close to 700 combined sunshine hours. Both had fewer than 30 raindays and average highs were 21-22C. * Somewhat hard to know if the index goes for or against us....I used Dec-Feb as "summer", but March is almost always warmer than December, and drier, but December is usually sunnier! Using this definition we also lose a few days of sunshine compared to the UK due to the shortness of February. Just checked, if summer were defined Jan-March then we increase to 292 in 2008. In 2009 we increase by only 0.1! Anyway, more research would be required, but it goes some way to ratifying the belief that March over here is summer and December is Spring...

Hard to imagine a more typical Spring day really.... Gusty northwesterlies here, gusting over 50 knots at times, plenty of sunshine in the city though and a high of 15C. Standard September fare! Likewise the rest of the country, thunderstorms down south - some severe , northwesterlies ahead of the front and a nationwide high of 21C.

I've heard little good weather news from the family in Wales. A brief, warm spell sometime in June which they enjoyed. Aside from that, another poor year. It's the third consecutive August where they've had lower sunshine hours than us (this year: 175 vs 145), which was winter vs summer is kind of pitiful. It's almost put me off visiting home in August again - though I hold out hope for a good year around the corner!

I've held off on this because I like the seasons based on the sun, but for a few weeks now very Spring-like weather has been dominant, and even with a cold southerly on the way later this week the general hemispheric trend looks like Spring rather than winter. That means westerlies. Lots and lots of westerlies. So far this month it's been pretty damn mild/warm for many areas. Wet in the west. Dry in the east. Sunny for most places. We'll be close to 170 sunshine hours when August ends, which is really good but still not a record (2007 was sunnier). Temperatures of interest so far this month: Wellington's warmest ever August day with 20C recorded at some valley stations. Napiers possible warmest ever August day with 24C. Yesterday 9 towns hit or exceeded 20C. A warm windy situation affects NZ today. Gusts to 140km/h from the northwest. Warm in the east, and mostly dry, with plentiful high and mid level cloud. Humid in the north, with dewpoints up to 18C recorded. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2779025/Start-of-the-golden-weather (from 23rd August)

It's currently sunny and 16C, so very Spring like really. Yesterday was the warmest day since April, with about 9 places meeting or exceeding 20C. So far this month the warmest temperature has been 24C in Napier.

A good one here! Biggest I've felt, mildly scary due to the time that it struck, there was the most shaking of any quake I've felt and also the loudest bang. A large earthquake in Wellington early this morning shook locals out of bed but there were no immediate reports of damage. The tremor, measuring 5.2 in magnitude, hit at 2.10am, GNS Science reported. It was centred 20km south of Wellington and was 30km deep. It was followed by a 4.3 aftershock at 3.52am. Police were inundated by 111 calls from people wanting more information on the quake but had no reports of damage, a central police communications spokesman said. GNS Science duty seismologist Ken Gledhill said the first earthquake was felt from the Kapiti Coast to the top of the South Island. More than 100 reports of shaking were received by the GeoNet website within 25 minutes of the earthquake. The GeoNet website crashed briefly from heavy traffic following the quake.

Not ideal for ski-ing in the foothills of the alps today! Last Update Wed, 26 Aug 09, 06:11 AM Status Closed Last Fall 5 cm, 25 Aug 2009 Road Closed The access road will remain closed all day as strong winds are creating hazardous driving conditions. Snow Lower mountain snow depth: 140 cm Upper mountain snow depth: 160 cm Snow surface: Machine Groomed Weather Wind and Snow, 2°C At 6am we have severe NW gales and are recording wind strengths in excess of 130km/h in the base area and 200km/h on the ridgeline. The wind is not forecast to ease sufficiently to enable safe operation of any of our lifts today. On a more positive note, we have received approx 10cm of wind affected snow on the upper mountain with approx 2-5cm of wetter snow at the base lodge.

High of 15C but cloudier than yesterday. No wind again though. Nationwide high of 18C down south.

All from WeatherZone.com.au While a series of fronts are bringing patchy light rain and showers to southern WA, coastal South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, the rest of the country is experiencing unprecedented temperatures for this time of the year. Last night, parts of NSW experienced their warmest August night in decades and today parts of Queensland suffered their hottest August day on record, with temperatures more representative of mid summer. In South Australia, overnight temperatures in the Northeast and Northwest Pastoral regions were up to 12 degrees warmer than average. Ernabella dropped down to 18 degrees, their warmest August night in 12 years while Moomba reached a whopping 35 degrees during the day after a low of 19 degrees, their warmest August night and day for 14 years. Further north across the NT border, the Alice Springs region struggled through one of their hottest August day on record, with temperatures between 10 and 13 degrees above average. At 35 degrees, Alice Springs had their warmest August day since records began 67 years ago. Yuendumu at 35 and Jervois at 37 also had their hottest August day in 47 years. --- Some of the hottest August weather in recorded history has brought summer temperatures to Queensland. The heat, also affecting parts of New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia, has lifted Sunday's maximums up to 16 degrees above average. The heat wave is now into its third day with many stations posting new August records on Saturday, only to break them a day later. Cunnamulla, in the Maranoa, recorded 37 degrees today. That is a huge 16 above average and their hottest August day in 102 years of records. Bedourie, in the Channel Country, saw another 38 degrees, their third consecutive day above 36 degrees. Monday looks set again for some more records to fall as winds strengthen from the west and northwest. All eyes are on Brisbane which should make it into the low 30's. The heat and forecast gusty winds has led to a fire weather warning being issued for the eastern Warrego, Maranoa, Darling downs, Granite Belt, Wide Bay and Burnett and the South East Coast. Tuesday will see another hot day before a weak cool change tries to push through late on Tuesday. Further cooling on Thursday and Friday should bring maximums closer to average, before warming again. ---- Meanwhile.... As much of eastern Australia bakes in summer-like temperatures, winter is set to make a wild return to the southeast. Victoria and Tasmania stand in the way of a violent reminder that we are indeed not in the middle of January. South Australia, the ACT and southern New South Wales will also feel the cold. A vigorous cold front is currently tracking across the Bight, brimming with storms, rain and gale force winds. Adelaide will be the first to feel the wrath of winter as temperatures fall to around 15 degrees on Monday. Winds will make it feel colder with possible gusts beyond 100km/h on Monday and Tuesday. Victoria and Tasmania will be next later on Monday and into Tuesday. Gales with potential gusts beyond 100km/h will be a genuine risk across much of Victoria. With thunderstorms and rain, it will make for quite a wild start to the week. Temperatures in Melbourne look likely to fall as low as 13 degrees on Tuesday, although with the winds it will feel colder. Canberra is expected to also drop to a chilly 11 degrees on Tuesday. The icy blast should give some decent snowfall to most resorts, especially on Tuesday, with blizzards and falls up to around 30 or even 40cm.

Fairly boring day of winter weather here....essentially it was the same as the last 3 days. Sunny, calm, high of 15C. Forecast is pretty much the same until the end of Tuesday.

Thanks...I think it's the most scenic main city in NZ, but doesn't really hold a candle to the backcountry.

Thank you OON, that's awfully kind. They aren't very big at all....but are big enough to sustain permanent snow in winter. The highest in view is Mt Hector, which is somewhere around 1500-1600m. Apparently in some countries they still think in "feet", and it is just over 5000 of those rather obscure measures. The rest, not too sure, but open tops implies above about 1100m - they look in the rough region of 1300-1400m to me.

Taken from my balcony a few nights ago.

I don't think there's any shame in asking for clarification, you're a scientist yourself so you must know how important it is to grasp basics. *Especially* when it comes to thermodynamics, which is conceptually one of the hardest branches of physics, and meteorology is so much about thermodynamics and fluid dynamics. “Thermodynamics is a funny subject. The first time you go through it, you don't understand it at all. The second time you go through it, you think you understand it, except for one or two small points. The third time you go through it, you know you don't understand it, but by that time you are so used to it, it doesn't bother you anymore.” — Arnold Sommerfeld, when asked why he had never written a book on the subject (c.1950) [11]

Beautiful day with near maximum sunshine hours and no wind. A high of only 10C, but who's counting? Very benign situation we're in right now. Nationwide high only 14C today, so quite cool even in the North. Interesting that the lack of intensity to that high, and it's position, almost makes it look like a Summertime situation or at least Spring. July is historically the least windy month in Wellington and this month has lived up to it so far, with a very good northwest blow the other day but nothing else of note. If we get stuck back into a westerly pattern though the Spring northerlies will seem like they've come early....