The start of a wild week: Gales, thunder, snow and downpours for Monday - Mon 16 May 2016
The start of a wild week: Gales, thunder, snow and downpours for Monday.
A mixed weather week kicks off today with a brace of hazardous and potentially damaging weather conditions across New
Zealand. An active front is sweeping up the country, bringing a risk of thunderstorms and heavy rain to Auckland,
Wellington and the west of both Islands. There will also be severe gales in the east from the Wairarapa southwards, and
snow down to 700m in the south.
The front brings a burst of atmospheric instability, sparking thunderstorms with hail and localised downpours, spreading
north into Wellington, Kapiti and New Plymouth around rush hour, and to Auckland after dark. There is a risk of severe
thunderstorms bringing damaging wind gusts and the chance of a tornado for many western areas, including Auckland where
lightning activity is expected to peak between 6 and 9pm tonight. Falls of 25mm per hour and over 1500 lightning strikes
per hour have already been observed on the West Coast.
Northwesterlies ahead of the front have been gusting 133kph at Cape Turnagain in the Wairarapa, and are expected to gust
110kph in Cook Strait this afternoon. A southerly blast behind the front is forecast to bring severe southwesterly gales
to Southland and Dunedin this afternoon, then through Banks Peninsula to Wellington and the southern Wairarapa late
tonight. The cold air behind this front will bring snow to around 700m as far north as Mackenzie Basin. Although only a
few centimetres of snow are expected to fall on the Lindis Pass, this is a precursor to further snowfall expected this
weekend when temperatures are set to drop giving a wintery feel over the weekend and into next week.
After today’s front a brief ridge brings more settled weather on Tuesday, before a second front brings more wild weather
on Wednesday. This next front will follow a similar pattern of northwest gales and heavy rain in the west. “The rapid
succession of fronts this week means that conditions will change rapidly, and potentially dangerously,” said
meteorologist Tom Adams, “Checking the latest forecast and warnings will be especially important in this dynamic weather
pattern.”
Keep up to date with the latest forecasts and any watches/warnings at metservice.com or on mobile devices at
m.metservice.com. You can also follow our updates on MetService TV, at MetService New Zealand on Facebook, @metservice
and @MetServiceWARN on Twitter and at blog.metservice.com
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