Heaviest falls in several decades?

[J07]

http://tvnz.co.nz/

Their top story is about the Prime Minister related tragedy. Some brilliant alpine scenery amidst sad scenes.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/2006038

Snow is a metre deep in Arthurs Pass Village. Cars buried....houses close to being so!

Click on the video link on the right hand side of that page, can't seem to link to it directly. It's well worth a watch to see the scale of snow drifts up there.

Visit http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/

To see some good snaps

Also good to read http://www.softrock.co.nz/mg/apmc.php

Some interesting stuff:

Friday 15/08/2008: 75cm of snow in Village this morning and building fast! We are experiencing a week-long storm cycle bringing extensive new snow to the Alps (200cm+). Well over a 1.5m of new snow on average up high. Very strong NW winds at high levels are creating very unstable slabs on lee features (very large natural avalanches are now occuring on ALL aspects). Climbing conditions are obviously now very dangerous, even venturing up valleys within tree-line could be deemed treacherous!

Avalanche Hazard Friday 15/08/2008:

EXTREME!

Size 2-3 avalanches have now been finding the highway (1st time in 16 years) initiated from slabs at 1600m. Substantial snowfalls in past week (135cm+), with further very heavy falls expected until Monday! Large class 2-3 slab avalanches have been observed on high eastern aspects of Lyell Peak during yesterday's lull as overloading of a snowpack occurs. An extreme natural cycle is now occuring on ALL aspects! DO NOT VENTURE INTO THE HILLS!!

There is no real sign of drastic change in conditions either. It is very hard, almost impossible to cross the Southern Alps. Arthurs Pass is closed, as is the Milford Road, chains are required on every other pass.

Snow has also pushed east of the main divide, into Craigieburn, with 30cm reported there. Of course the farmers are being somewhat stoic about their situation!

500hPa temps have been below -30C in the region of late. Either breaking records or close to doing so...

Amongst all this, Gisborne records fine, sunny weather and 16C.

More thunderstorms on the way for Wellington tomorrow morning.

We have been in a bizarre setup for some time now.

[Cheviot]

That's a huge amount of snow. What do places like Twizel do when the snows come in?

[J07]

That's a huge amount of snow. What do places like Twizel do when the snows come in?

I would expect that they are somewhat expecting it. They didn't get as much as Arthurs Pass in this fall though, but still a decent amount.

I'd be surprised if anyone lived there and didn't own chains.

They are perhaps lucky in that you can bomb down to the coast relatively quickly, because the road is almost entirely straight, so no evil bends to negotiate. Central Otago most likely has bigger issues with getting cut off from snowfalls.

[J07]

Collation from across the web:

<h1 class="blogTitle">Biggest Snow Base in History</h1> It's official! Turoa now has the biggest snow base in the history of commercial skiing in New Zealand. The snow stake at 2000m above sea level officially measures 455cm's this morning. We are now wondering where it might all end up. Whakapapa is also entering record territory at 350cm's, which is the most since 1994. Ok enough is enough, just blue skies now please.

from http://www.mtruapehu.com/winter/latest-news/

New Zealand's main State Highway snowbound around the Desert Road on the Central Plateau (North Island):

from www.emergency.co.nz

[WS Evolution]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xmh3jnbLs

[J07]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xmh3jnbLs

Cheers, much easier to access than fiddling around on the TVNZ site...