Post by mumbles on Mar 12, 2010 22:24:08 GMT 12
Like I suspect a lot of forum members I am a keen weather watcher (to the point of apparently being the resident weather guru amongst friends and family). Metservice was predicting interesting weather today, so I took my camera to work on the off chance there would be something worth photographing. As the day progressed the 'interesting' progressed to 'very interesting' with the help of the metservice weather radar function on their website, so I headed down to nearby Petone beach (which is a great place to watch weather in Wellington) after work to see what I could see. As anyone who saw the news tonight it was quite violent.... 
Story link from stuff here
www.stuff.co.nz/national/3441447/Wild-weather-blasts-central-New-Zealand
I got to the beach at about 1620, just as things were unfolding
Looking across Wellington Harbour toward the city, with Matiu/Somes Island on the left:
And south out toward the harbour entrance, with the sun still shining in Seatoun, but imminent dark gnarliness beyond. Also note how calm the water is.
The arriving southerly starting to engulf the city at about 1625
And the harbour entrance at 1627. I've seen plenty of southerlies come across the harbour, but the speed of this thing was notable.
Matiu/Somes Island at 1628. Usually you can see the Mirimar Peninsula and the City in the background of this shot. Note the sun is still shining in Petone (with a still gentle northerly).
Whirlwind under the squall line as it crosses the harbour. This was easily 100m or more across, and suddenly got me to thinking about how exposed I might be. I put my jacket on at this point. The wind had dropped from the north and was starting to swirl about now. Also the rate of advance of the clouds was very intimidatingly apparent.
The storm has landed at the other end of the beach here at 1631. Amazingly there are still a couple of people swimming. The wind was just starting to shift south about now. When the squall line hit it was like a bomb. The wind went from almost nothing to gale southerly in a few seconds.
The same view (from inside my car) five minutes later at 1636
Looking back toward Matiu/Somes at 1641. The sea state makes a nice comparison with pictures from a few minutes earlier.
The storm started abating by around 1830. Scenes like this are typical in the Lower Hutt Valley tonight. Damage like this isn't unusual around here from a southerly, but is usually inflicted overnight rather than in an hour or so. This was an unusually intense event.
And by 1930 it was almost like nothing had happened, although as I write the showers have returned (although the wind has not)
Supposed to clear tomorrow. I hope so, as I have tickets to the one-dayer at the stadium, and the wife is running a fair stall
Story link from stuff here
www.stuff.co.nz/national/3441447/Wild-weather-blasts-central-New-Zealand
I got to the beach at about 1620, just as things were unfolding
Looking across Wellington Harbour toward the city, with Matiu/Somes Island on the left:
And south out toward the harbour entrance, with the sun still shining in Seatoun, but imminent dark gnarliness beyond. Also note how calm the water is.
The arriving southerly starting to engulf the city at about 1625
And the harbour entrance at 1627. I've seen plenty of southerlies come across the harbour, but the speed of this thing was notable.
Matiu/Somes Island at 1628. Usually you can see the Mirimar Peninsula and the City in the background of this shot. Note the sun is still shining in Petone (with a still gentle northerly).
Whirlwind under the squall line as it crosses the harbour. This was easily 100m or more across, and suddenly got me to thinking about how exposed I might be. I put my jacket on at this point. The wind had dropped from the north and was starting to swirl about now. Also the rate of advance of the clouds was very intimidatingly apparent.
The storm has landed at the other end of the beach here at 1631. Amazingly there are still a couple of people swimming. The wind was just starting to shift south about now. When the squall line hit it was like a bomb. The wind went from almost nothing to gale southerly in a few seconds.
The same view (from inside my car) five minutes later at 1636
Looking back toward Matiu/Somes at 1641. The sea state makes a nice comparison with pictures from a few minutes earlier.
The storm started abating by around 1830. Scenes like this are typical in the Lower Hutt Valley tonight. Damage like this isn't unusual around here from a southerly, but is usually inflicted overnight rather than in an hour or so. This was an unusually intense event.
And by 1930 it was almost like nothing had happened, although as I write the showers have returned (although the wind has not)
Supposed to clear tomorrow. I hope so, as I have tickets to the one-dayer at the stadium, and the wife is running a fair stall
