Yesterday's Thunderstorms

As you may have read, yesterday we had some crazy weather here. Crazy is probably the right word...

 

For those who aren't aware:

Yesterday, we had a sudden thunderstorm front pass through, where the weather went from sunny and mild, to suddenly storm + overcast, with dark ominous clouds, which quickly turned into thunder + lighting + hail + heavy rain (with surface flooding). Most affected were all the folks who had headed out to the final day of the A&P show  (i.e. farm folk bring their animals to town, to let us city people see their critters + lifestyle) and/or the horse races (i.e. where ladies dress up in fancy dresses, and consume too much wine) - as both of these events are held outdoors, and in the areas where the most hail fell. Large hailstones I might add apparently... From the photos I've seen, it was such a hailstorm, that it looked like snow had fallen out that way - it was everywhere, and enough for folks to make little snowmen (oh... *ahem*  "hail people") out of that white stuff!

 

Unfortunately, it seems we missed most of the most fun/exciting parts!  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aligorith/albums/72177720330356928

Super Saturday Sunrise

As you may have guessed already, I'm more a night owl than an early riser.... mornings have never really been my thing :)  Yet, last Saturday, "Super Saturday" (more on this in a moment), I happened to wake at the crack of dawn. One thing lead to another, and before long, not only was I out of bed, but I was out of the house, then out of the garden and across the road, and still clad in just pj's and flip flops (sans socks)! Fortunately, there weren't many people out at that hour, and the weather was not too cold (it was already quite mild, though slightly on the chilly side - it had after been in the low 30's for the past 2 days at that point!)

I have not done any post-pro to any of these images. These are practically all straight out of camera!

Hot Weather + Last Night's Sunset

The weather over the past few days has been quite warm - hitting 33 yesterday, 32 again today, and a forecast high of 31 again tomorrow. Considering that this is the tail end of February (traditionally the hottest month of the year in Christchurch) this is not too surprising! With the warm weather, we also sometimes get some rather dramatic skies. Last night was no exception!

Summer Has Returned - Tonight's Sunset

After several weeks of windy/wet/overcast/chilly weather, summer finally returned today, with a high of 28 C (+ warm night), a colourful sunset, and another hot sunny day tomorrow with 30 C

Wild December Weather

The weather so far this month has been crazy! Some are attributing it to the "El Nino" weather pattern that's in play this summer - IIRC, El Nino's usually the hot + dry one (i.e. most summers), while El Nina is the "cold + miserable washout" summer (i.e. like the year I was 8 or 9, and it rained for like 2 weeks straight).

 Some lumpy clouds during a break in the weather this afternoon...

Stunning Hot-Day Sunset

The past two days have been sweltering hot here in Christchurch, with a high of 29 deg C yesterday, 28 deg C today, and remaining warm overnight (i.e. it was still 21 deg C at midnight, and is forecast to stay that way till morning). This has lead to some amazing sunsets again, as you can see below... From this evening:

 I was out and about watering the plants during both - which turned out to be both a curse and a blessing: on the plus side, I got to be outside watching the sunset and taking photos; on the downside, I ended up watering the plants in the dark! Haha... ;)

Humid Surreal Sunset

Today marked the start of what is shaping to be another hot summery weekend, with temperatures rising to 27 degrees and hovering around that mark for most of the day. However, bang on 8pm though, a brief rain shower came through, giving the plants a well-needed drink, and bringing the temperatures down a bit to a more comfortable temperature (though that was counterbalanced by the increase in humidity... yuck!). This lead to some very interesting cloud formations, a double rainbow, and an even fancier sunset...

Hot Day - Interesting Cloud Formations

Phew! It's been really hot again here today, shooting up to 30 degrees by 10am (from the mid teens overnight, to about 21 degrees at 8am) and staying there until around 2pm, when it gradually started cooling down to a more comfortable 22 degrees around 7pm. With the cooling temperatures (brought about by some nice sea breezes) we also got some very interesting cloudscapes...

Tonight's Sunset

Following a day of blustery norwesters, we had yet another interesting sunset this evening. Originally, it didn't look too promising, as there was just a lot of blue sky around everywhere. But, around 6:15, I caught sight of a large pink cloud formation out to the east. Heading outside, I quickly discovered that besides the interesting cloud to the east, there was also some interesting action going on to the west!

Sunsets this week

With the unsettled spring weather this week (following a really nice and sunny settled period over the past week or two), we've had a number of spectacular sunsets this week. As they say, some of the most dramatic sunsets occur on the days with the highest probability of also turning out to be complete fizzers where the cloud cover just blotted out everything. That said, I'm beginning to feel like I'm starting to be able to guess which days are likely to produce some interesting skies to look at. Today's sunset was one of those...

 Today

 Tuesday

Monday

Last night's sunset

Despite a cold change and predicted rain during the afternoon, last night's sunset was still somewhat decent (though obviously not as impressive as the one that I'd missed on Wednesday). It was however bitterly cold - within a minute of being out there, I was like an ice block, despite wearing a jacket and gloves!

Firey Blue Sunset

Here are some shots from last night's sunset. Although I missed the start of it, I managed to catch the second half from 5:30 onwards after spying the strong orange-red glow it was emitting across the north-western corner of the sky.

More from Friday's Sunset (and a Recap of the Past Week)

Here's a followup post with some more shots from Friday evening's sunset.

Turbulent Times

A teaser of the sunset this evening... I've got a whole lot of other equally nice shots from this evening that I haven't uploaded yet, along with many other backlogged posts + photosets.

It was quite chilly out there at the time, given that, after all we'd just had 2 days of a bitter southerly change which has dropped temperatures from balmy and spring-like "17-degrees and not a cloud in the sky" of June to deep winter conditions.

Fog

With winter, comes wintery weather - like fog, rain, and sometimes snow. Late this afternoon, I watched as a thick blanket of fog enveloped the city leading up to sunset. So I thought: what a great opportunity to try and get some moody fog-lit shots around town, since I'd be heading out anyway.