Addendum added on  20 Dec 2010 with images from Malcolm Potts 

Written by Wayde Beckman from the Health Sponsorship Council, on 11 November 2010

Who would have thought in November, when temperatures struggle to get over 20 degrees in some New Zealand places, that ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels are already high enough to cause sunburn and put Kiwis at risk of developing melanoma skin cancer?

This blog post is the third in a three-part series discussing verification of MetService forecasts. Here, we present the method used for verifying Severe Weather Warnings, along with some recent examples.

This blog post is the second in a three-part series discussing verification of MetService forecasts. Here, we present the method used for verifying maximum and minimum temperature in city forecasts, along with some recent examples.

This blog post is the first in a three-part series discussing verification of MetService forecasts. Here, we present the method used for verifying rainfall in city forecasts, along with some examples.

In 2007 our weather radar network looked like the picture below. The dark part of the circle is the area / range in which the radar is very accurate and the lighter range is useful as a heads-up. New modern radars send out both vertical and horizontal scans allowing us to not only determine the presence of rain but the volume as well. This is really handy for forecasting and tracking storms and severe weather.

On Saturday 16 October 2010, many parts of New Zealand, especially South Island, experienced Foehn winds. During the approach to summer, eastern parts of both islands will get more warm Foehn winds under suitable conditions. In this blog post I'll describe what the Foehn wind is and explain how it comes about. We'll start by looking at temperature reports from weather stations on Saturday 16 Oct 2010.  

This article relates to weather experienced in late September 2010  

Written in September 2010

A recent visit to Sydney International Airport has inspired me to write a little about another famous aviator with a New Zealand connection. Last year I wrote a post about Jean Batten who, in her youth had met the topic of this post, Charles Kingsford Smith. Auckland International Airport is named in honour of Jean Batten and likewise Sydney International Airport is named after Charles Kingsford Smith.