Unpredictable weather around the globe

What on earth is happening with the weather around the globe? One thing that seems predictable at the moment is the unpredictability of it all. Here in New Zealand we have recently seem temperatures and snow falls that would challenge the record books even in the depths of winter with snow falling in Taupo and Auckland receiving single digit highs just 2 and a half months from the longest day of the year.

Meanwhile overseas typhoon after typhoon, including a recent 'super typhoon' (the Hurricane Katrina of typhoons) slammed into the Philippines killing dozens and destroying many homes. Japan was also recently hit by a typhoon which killed - and now that very same typhoon has crossed the Pacific and is about to hit the west coast of America. In Italy mudslides have killed people and in America winter has arrived literally days after summer officially ended there.

And check out this stunning UFO cloud that formed over Moscow last week (http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/ufo-moscow)... talk about a scene from the movie Independence Day.

I must confess I've always had a special interest in the weather across America and Canada. Not only are the coverage and forecasting skills in this part of the world so incredible but so too is the weather itself. In Nebraska artic chills have arrived very early with daytimes highs the other day around 22 degrees...yesterday the high was 1 degree with a windchill of -8. Later this week it surges back up into the late teens.

Further east and in Tennessee it was 28 degrees the other day and yet this Friday the high is 11.

And even further east, in Atlanta, torrential rain caused massive flooding, the worst in half a century. Major highways, bigger than Spaghetti Junction in Auckland, went underwater as commuters tried to get home.

Out in the Atlantic the late starting hurricane season has fizzled into nothingness. Great for residents in Florida and other southern states and islands in the tropics but not so much fun for storm chasers. Any tropical storm that does form is happening almost near Africa with the last tropical storm impacting Ireland rather than America!

Then of course we have Australia and the big dust storms recently...not to mention some unseasonable warmth in September in Sydney which has now given way to bitterly cold southerlies. For the great race at Bathurst it barely reached 17 degrees and the grass around the track was green...normally it's brown.

And back here in New Zealand it seems the warmth has finally returned. Two weeks of winter temps but now mid to late teens are going to be common...with some northern and eastern centres reaching the 20s. Yay - summer is finally getting closer.

I wonder what lies ahead for Labour Weekend? My bet is that we won't have three days of the same weather.

- Philip Duncan




Photo: Sheep feel the cold in New Zealand's recent chilly weather. Photo / Alan Gibson