Archive for May, 2009
- Red sky at night… - May 28th, 2009 , Written By: Ross Marsden | No Comments
- An eggbeater southerly - May 20th, 2009 , Written By: Bob McDavitt | No Comments
- Meteorological Aspects of a Recent Trip to the Tararuas - May 19th, 2009 , Written By: Jonathan Tunster | 1 Comment
- Variable 10 knots - May 14th, 2009 , Written By: Chris Webster | 1 Comment
- Canterbury Snow, 10 May 2009 - May 13th, 2009 , Written By: Chris Noble | No Comments
- Brrrrr……. - May 11th, 2009 , Written By: Bob McDavitt | No Comments
Red sky at night, Shepherd’s delight. Red sky in the morning, Sailor’s warning. I’m not going to argue about shepherds and sailors; that’s not important here. The questions are: “Is it a useful saying? Does is work? If it works, why?” And, “Why is the sky blue?”
Today’s weather map shows how this cold southerly is being produced by a combination of a HIGH or anticyclone in the Tasman Sea, and a LOW or depression between Canterbury and the Chatham Islands. For want of a better phrase, we could call this an eggbeater southerly. Using the isobars as a proxy for the [...]
May 4th/5th 2009 I work as a public forecaster and my main tasks include writing regional, urban and mountain forecasts. I either work mornings (which start at 5:50AM and finish mid afternoon), or afternoons (which commence mid afternoon and run until 10:45PM). A benefit of shiftwork is frequently having weekdays off, which earlier this month [...]
Several years ago, while on a trip to the UK, I noticed something of meteorological interest that was not in the sky. I was outside Westminster Abbey, one of the worlds greatest landmarks, and the burial place of many famous people. Sir Isaac Newton, a man who had a profound influence on all branches of science (including atmospheric science) being one such esteemed individual. As I walked around the Abbey, I noticed a plaque that nicely describes what mariners might call “variable 10 knots”…
With clear skies over most of Canterbury on Monday, we got a good look at the fresh snow that fell on Sunday (10th May). Here’s the view late Monday morning (around 10:30am) from NASA’s Earth Observing System Terra Satellite, Based on the coverage in that image and reports from snow observers, the bulk of the [...]
The arrival of colder southerlies over the past few days has made many of us move into our winter mode … turning up the home heating, putting an extra blanket on the bed, etc. It has certainly put an end to the golden weather that Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay have been [...]