Stormy weather here to stay

Sick of the wind already? Well, it's here to stay - at least for another 7 days as a high north of NZ and low pressure south of us continue to fuel a big powerful westerly flow. In fact it's really a battle of air pressure giants - big highs, big lows and a battle for dominance which happens right over our tiny nation - bringing the severe gales, the thunderstorms and the heavy rain.

WeatherWatch was flooded (for use of a better word) on Wednesday night and Thursday with many photos and videos of the dramatic thunderstorms around Auckland. We've compiled the 3 best video clips here: (http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/amazing-new-video-lightning-stikes-over-auckland-cbd) and our news and best photos here (http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/thunderstorms-way-auckland-waikato-coromandel)

So are we in for more? You betcha. A storm is coming on Sunday and Monday and it may be even more aggressive than this weeks rough weather. Gales look as though they'll be more widespread reaching as far north as Auckland possibly on Sunday while heavy rain will move over the west coast covering two thirds of the country. Thunderstorms are also very likely with this unsettled weather - again they'll be targeting the entire west coast of New Zealand - most likely aiming for the usual places like the West Coast, Taranaki and Northland but also Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel and probably Kapiti, Horowhenua and Manawatu.

The wind and rain is looking very likely - but as far as knowing about the thunderstorm's severity and where they'll exactly be we won't be certain until the system moves closer. Thunderstorms can be very tricky to pinpoint around New Zealand. Don't forget to keep an eye on our free and live Lightning Tracker - it certainly looked amazing over Wednesday night! (http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/lightning-radar)

I have to say this week has a been a real shock to the system. We have had three to four weeks of very quiet weather and suddenly boom we're into serious spring weather. Reporters calling, website ratings jumping and deadlines looming every couple of hours - it's been a crazy week for me.

It was such a rush of adrenaline the other night when those thunderstorms moved in. 'Isolated' thunderstorms suddenly changed to 'widespread' as they moved into the Auckland rain radar (which covers from Taranaki to Northland and out west into the Tasman Sea). What looked like another relatively quiet night suddenly turned into a busy night with press releases being written and WeatherWatch quickly informing the Herald, Newstalk ZB and all our radio stations across the country.

The thought of even going to sleep is out of the question when there's big weather news happening - and the severe weather doesn't need to be wherever the forecasters are based. If the same thing was happening in Wellington we would have had the same surge of personal energy - so long as we were receiving reports from the public and could see what was happening on the radars and trackers. But it's the emails, the photos and the youtube videos from the public that really keep the energy levels high.

After the thunderstorms ended on Wednesday night it was very hard to unwind. It was 3 hours of regular 20 minute updates, numerous press releases and publishing amazing photos and eyewitness reports. It will be nice to have a breather today and Saturday... but by Saturday night we'll probably be preparing for another busy 48 hours as the next system moves in.

- Philip Duncan

 

Pictured above: Spring weather has arrived. Photo / Paul Estcourt