DT- Northland Weather

[DT-NZ]

On the cooler side this morning... currently 22.6°C out - there's a feel of moisture in the air, my hair is starting to get that flyaway look to it *frowns* - and, the ant's came out sometime within the last 24hrs - noticed them this morning marching in straight line up the wall - they weren't there the other day... still...

[DT-NZ]

Sun's out with patchy cloud currently 20.4°C out - light SSW.

[DT-NZ]

The Big Dry continues...

Dry pic's taken on the 17th January 2010 from the FN region, Northland.

[DT-NZ]

18.1°C currently... a light misty veil rain is falling out over on the hills NE from here.. I see the colour of a light lime green returning to hills this morning... nice

[DT-NZ]

Location: FN Region - Taken from Rangikapiti Pa looking N
Date: 24th January 2010
Time: 16:36 hrs

[DT-NZ]

Scattered cloud's currently 24.2°C out - as the drought continues - the thought rain depreviation comes to my mind and the effect's of no rain in the area is starting affect many things.

[Michael]

Yes they keep promising easterlies but they dont arrive,what you need is a good stationary high over the chathams and a low to your NW,it will change bigtime then.

[DT-NZ]

Yes they keep promising easterlies but they dont arrive,what you need is a good stationary high over the chathams and a low to your NW,it will change bigtime then.

An interesting thing I have observed (personally) have been the body changes that take place at a cellular level during weather conditions like this? - insomuch that the physical form is not so dense... an example ( from recent personal experience ) is the ability to float on top of water.

It's a strange sensation in that... the moment I begin to wade out into deeper water ( just above the waist ) and although my feet are still touching the bottom of the lake floor - my body just wants to float... *bubbly laughter* perhaps I need wear belt with a few light lead weights to keep me in the water.

[DT-NZ]

Well,

We had a lovely light heat shower (though brief ) shortly after I had taken these pics... however, there were not enough droplets in the rain gauge for me to give a rainfall amount from this afternoon's late pleasant rain shower.

[DT-NZ]

It's been windy all day today... no significant rainfall really today - only drizzle in these parts... still good to hear news that other area's within the FN and MN regions received rain.

I like the new signature too thank's Vertigo ( DT suddenly feel's dizzy ) anyway, I think the weather guys here are onto it when it comes to weather related things, Awesome.

[DT-NZ]

Getting some really strong gusts up here today.

[DT-NZ]

There is a great discussion thread going on over on the New Zealand Weather & Climate forum here.

One of the weather guys wrote about Skew-T and plotting variables - immedately I did a search on google and found some great a couple of resources. Often the weather guys, like John, Brian, spwill, nzstorm, Vertigo, TT, jamie h, David, Richard, nev, Myself, Snoopy, Andrew, Michael and the Canty weather guys (actually all of them ) will use the same repetitive weather terminology in their posts - words like inversion, LI, scud, DP's, cape, 500mb - which is very important.

So, to help understand this better... I am going to post a few links to resources that I think are helpful and also that a few other weather newbies may find helpful also.

What is a Skew-T?

A thermodynamic diagram is a chart on which pressure, density, temperature and water vapor are plotted for a point on the Earth up through the atmosphere. By having temperature against pressure, one can get a feel for many variables at a glance without performing lengthy calculations. The data is gathered by an instrument package attached to a balloon called a radiosonde launched from hundreds of sites around the world.

One specific type of thermodynamic diagram is a skew-T log-p, or skew-t, that tilts the lines of constant temperature (isotherms) and compresses the pressure scale logarithmicly.

How to read a Skew-T

When you first look at a Skew-T, what do you see? There's nothing but a bunch of lines, right? Here is a quick explanation of what all those lines mean.

Isobars (D) -- Lines of equal pressure. Solid brown lines that run horizontally from left to right and are labeled on the left side of the diagram. Pressure is given in increments of 100 mb and ranges from 1050 mb to 100 mb. Spacing between the isobars increases in the vertical because of the log scale that is used to represent pressure.

Isotherms -- Lines of equal temperature. Straight, solid brown lines that slope from the bottom left to the upper right (thus the name skew) across the diagram. Increments are per degree and are labeled for every 5 degrees in units of Celsius. They are labeled at the bottom of the diagram with corresponding temperatures in Fahrenheit.

Dry Adiabats (E) -- Slightly curved, solid brown lines that slant from lower right to upper left. They are labeled every 10 degrees Celsius and indicate the rate of change of temperature in an air parcel of dry air rising or descending adiabatically.

Saturation Adiabats (F) -- Slightly curved, solid green lines sloping from lower right to upper left. They are labeled every 2 degrees Celsius and indicate the rate of change of temperature in a saturated air parcel as it rises pseudo-adiabatically. They become parallel to the dry Adiabats at the top of the chart because of the very low moisture content at those levels and stop at 200 mb.

Saturation Mixing Ratio Lines (C) -- These are the dashed green, slightly curved lines that slope from the lower left to the upper right that represent lines of equal mixing ratio. They are labeled on the bottom of the diagram in grams per kilogram of water vapor. They extend only to 200 mb and the spacing between them decreases as their values increase.

Temperature Curve (B) -- This is the plot of the temperature measurements that were taken from the rawinsonde as it was increasing in height. This curve will always be to the right of the dewpoint curve as you are facing a Skew-T. It is usually drawn in red but can be other colors.

Dewpoint Curve (A) -- This is the plot of the dewpoint measurements increasing with height. This curve will always be to the left of the temperature curve as you are facing a Skew-T. It is usually drawn in green but can be other colors.

edit reasons: including Michael, cant forget Michael with his lively SW winds, Gale Force, pine needles and beep bop - famous on Michael weather blog reports AWE some!

[DT-NZ]

Well, I'm back again *yawns* still way tired, however, wanted to do a quick report of todays weather.

No rain with a mix of convergence - blue skies, sunshine and a nice cool breeze.

Currently the evening skies look brilliant - charcoal grey clouds with a red tinge to the base of them... *yawns*........ time to wind down and call it day.

edit reasons: correcting grammar.

[DT-NZ]

Warm and humid - cicada's are out in force - very noisy indeed!!

[DT-NZ]

Exactly 1 year ago I registered and signed up to the NZWF - at the time I registered I became the NZWF 440 member and look how much the membership has grown since, so, Happy 1 year celebration to me here on NZWF AWE some.

Currently 24.1°C out - with a light wind coming in from the W - blues skies with lots of sun about.

[DT-NZ]

Kaitaia readings 24 hours to 9am, Monday 22 March

Temperatures, rainfall and sunshine data from Kaitaia Observatory on Okahu Rd supplied by NIWA; humidity and wind data from Kaitaia Hospital, supplied by Northland Emergency Service Trust.

Temperatures C
At 9am 12.7
Maximum 24.0
Minimum 11.5
Grass minimum 10.1
10cm Soil 17.5

Humidity %
At 9am 100

Wind km/h
At 9am E 6
24hr max gust W 35

Rainfall mm
24 hours 0.0
To date for Mar 33.0
Average for Mar 84
To date for 2010 88.7

Sunshine hours
On Sunday 10.1
To date for Mar 160.8
Average for Mar 199
To date for 2010 690.6

_____________

Information above taken and typed from today's Northland Age - also, I would have placed the above data over on the weather blog, however, I am unable to post a post on the Northland Weather blog (not sure what is happening there).

[DT-NZ]

YAY... my weather blog works... cheer's

[DT-NZ]

With the brief showers today that have passed over this area - all this wonderful rain has quite put me into a creative mood - out came the camera from its case, below a few photographs taken this afternoon approx 13:40hrs - rain inspired water colours (naturally).

[DT-NZ]

FABULOUS... it works now...

[DT-NZ]

Ok now that I have my camera back and I've managed to figure out my weather blog hiccup here are a few pics snapped last week, a return to green in some places.

[DT-NZ]

These images will be the last in the series of the FN Dry season photographs I have taken between Jan 2010 - May 2010. I personally have enjoyed doing this little project, it has been quite rewarding and interesting also to observe and note the changes over the months.

Location : Photo taken from Rangikapiti Pa, Mangonui - looking NE
Date & Time : Sunday, 2 May 2010, 4:36:28 p.m.

[DT-NZ]

I have been fairly quiet lately and not here as much as I would love to with regular weather updates and reports here on my blog, still, I look forward to regular reports with the (AT LAST) welcome return and start of the 2010 WET SEASON - SKIES ALIVE so NICE with all those lovely clouds up there now - what a thrill, yes!!! so....

A few pics of Autumn colours taken in Kaeo and Whangarei last week.

[DT-NZ]

Kaitaia readings 24 hours to 9am,Wedneday 2 June.

Temperatures, rainfall and sunshine data from Kaitaia Observatory on Okahu Rd supplied by NIWA; humidity and wind data from Kaitaia Hospital, supplied by Northland Emergency Service Trust.

Temperatures °C
At 9am 14.8
Maximum 18.9
Minimum 13.7
Grass minimum 11.9
10cm Soil 14.8

Humidity %
At 9am 99

Wind km/h
At 9am E 2
24hr max gust W 50

Rainfall mm
24 hours 10.5
To date for Jun 10.5
Average for Jun 148
To date for 2010 318.8

Sunshine hours
On Tuesday 4.3
To date for Jun 4.3
Average for June 125
To date for 2010 -

[DT-NZ]

The first morning of winter looked like this on June 1 2010.

[DT-NZ]

Currently 12 C out with overcast skies over the bay. Well, I am excited as I realized this is the 1000th post I have made since joining NZWF - Awesome and CONGRATULATIONS to me *bubbly laughter* on my 1000th post here - yes.

Saturday evening my family and I cuddled together outside on the deck, wrapped ourselves up snug and warm from head to toe in woollies and we spent the evening eclipse watching - we had clear skies during the initial first phase of the partial lunar eclipse - and then a layer of cloud came across obscuring our view, despite this we did manage to snap a few pics using the digital camera.