[Phil]

By mid afternoon the temerature had reached a pleasent 18 degrees with a few clouds scattered accross the sky, shop door wide open, a lovely autumn afternoon, Started to go through the procedure of closing down the shop, restocking shelves etc and then at 4.43 the front hit. the temperature dropped dramatically and the wind intensified, newspaper stands where blown down the footpath, door mats and free standing shop signs where also blown out into the road, The rain was coming in parrallal and been blown under the door, branches snapping of trees and mail and newspaper being sucked out of letter boxs, Driving my van home was interesting as the wind gusts pounding against it made interesting driving. Thunder was evident but I saw no lighting, driving head first into the rain on the motorway was like driving through a carwash visibilty was nearly non existent, Most drivers would have driving at about 20kph.
Wellington Airport was closed for about an hour due the high winds, The train service also had extensive delays
On arriving home I found we had no power, it was restored at about 6-50pm.
This power cut of course disabled my weather station so I got no readings of the storm.
From what I have heard we got 45mm of rain in two hours and wind gusts upto 130kph.
It was a short and sharp hit from a very active cold front, I cannot remeber anything like this before.
This morning we have cloudy skies and it is calm, more blue sky and a some scattered cloud.
certainly a remeberable event.

[Grant]

Quote

Gusting southerly which destroyed property, left commuters stranded and cut power to Wellington residents last night has moved north but fresh gales are expected in the lower South Island from today.

High winds blew over trees and powerlines and swamped emergency services in Wellington and Kaikoura as atrocious weather shunted up the east coast in the afternoon.

Several people received minor injuries, including a teenage boy hit by a falling tree branch at Rarangi near Blenheim.

Wind gusts of nearly 150km/h were recorded on Wellington's Mt Kaukau, and the temperature dropped from 19.9C to 9C when the "aggressive" southerly front reached the capital late in the afternoon, weather analyst Philip Duncan said.

Winds gusted over 120km/h elsewhere in the city, causing damage to roofs and powerlines, and bringing hail.

http://www.nzherald....jectid=10631793

[RWood]

The "but fresh gales are expected in the lower South...." has little or no relevance or connection to the Wellington storm story - and is not really news at all. Howling westerlies are a rather common occurrence on the Southland coast in March, although it has got off somewhat more lightly in recent years.

This post has been edited by RWood: 13 March 2010 - 04:40 PM

[Phil]

The storm arrives in Wellington photo credit of Kelly Sutton

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This post has been edited by Phil: 13 March 2010 - 07:41 PM

[Grant]

Its a cracking picture isn't it?

[rainfan]

Phil, on 13 March 2010 - 06:40 PM, said:

The storm arrives in Wellington photo credit of Kelly Sutton

Awesome picture! Love how can see the sheet of rain sweeping across the sea.

This post has been edited by rainfan: 14 March 2010 - 07:44 PM

[ATO2]

Phil, on 13 March 2010 - 08:40 PM, said:

The storm arrives in Wellington photo credit of Kelly Sutton

Yep, that's one great picture!