Strong Storm About to Hit Us
July 25th, 2008UPDATE: Electricity Back On
We’re ok. Man, that was a wild one! I can’t get over the amounts of water that can fall out of the sky here. And I don’t know how hard the wind was gusting, but all of the fast air moving against the house sounded like a giant blowing out a tune on an empty beer bottle. Various debris hit the house, but nothing broke.
I thought that I was going to wake up and find that the IPstar satellite dish had blown over into the cow paddock. Somehow, it’s still attached to the house and pointed at the bird.
The leading edge of the storm blacked us out, as expected, but the electricity is on again. I don’t know for how long. Looking at the hourly radar, it appears that the worst part has moved over us, but I just checked MetService and found this:
Severe Weather Warning
Issued by MetService at 08:14am 26-Jul-2008
MAJOR STORM STILL ON TRACK TO HIT THE NORTH ISLAND
A very deep low is approaching northern New Zealand this morning from the north Tasman Sea. This unusually intense low is forecast to move over Cape Reinga towards evening and then track southeastwards past Coromandel Peninsula around midnight, and lie near East Cape by midday Sunday. East to southeast gales are expected to buffet the North Island, with potentially damaging wind gusts of around 130 km/h possible in many exposed parts of the North Island, excluding Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay. MetService advises the public that winds of this strength have the potential to damage trees, powerlines and insecure structures and make driving hazardous, especially combined with heavy rain and possible slips. Boaties are advised to avoid going out and should have made moorings secure as high winds and very large waves are likely about northern and eastern coasts of the North Island.
A front ahead of the low is expected to bring widespread rain to the North Island by the end of Saturday. The heaviest rain should be in Northland,northern Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Gisborne and the Hawkes Bay. In these areas streams and rivers could rise quickly,with surface flooding and slips likely.
THIS IS A POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE AND DANGEROUS STORM AND PEOPLE IN THE NORTH ISLAND, ESPECIALLY FROM WAIKATO NORTHWARDS, WOULD BE WELL ADVISED TO AVOID UNNECESSARY TRAVEL.
— End Update —
Just a quick note to let you know that a strong winter storm is about to pass over us. From previous experience, we know that it’s possible that we could lose power for a couple of days from something like this. So, if there are no updates, that’s why.
Good luck!
Sounds full-on. I imagine it would be quite an experience… The power of nature at its best (or worst).
Hi
I just rang family in Auckland, and a tree in their front garden has broken and is resting on their power line. The power company said they will come and sort it out but who knows when.
Glad to hear you are all OK, I thought your power would be down for sure after reading the nzherald article about the storm.
Here in Wisconsin during our Northern-Hemisphere winter, it was just one brutal, punishing storm after another from roughly December 1, 2007 to April 1, 2008 (though less so in March than the preceding three months). Our grand mal storm during the second week in February dumped an entire foot and a half of snow on us in a twenty-four hour period! What really sucked is that a lot of it was what I call “Global Warming Diarreah Snow” that cakes all over everything and gets your feet just utterly sopping wet. And when it wasn’t the crappy snow, the inevitable post-storm days we would have with temperatures in the mid-30’s guaranteed an abundance of slush and slop on the ground to get your feet wet.
Just last month SW Wisconsin experienced its second Once-in-1000-years flood. The first was last September. Dams that were built to withstand the worst imaginable torrents had to be intentionally opened-up, to keep them from failing all at once and sending a wall of water down on all the homes that were built in their “hydraulic shadow”. An entire little town of Gays Mills is going to have to be moved, since FEMA has told them they won’t be covered for damages next time around.
Like you, Kevin, I found myself wondering “doesn’t it defy some kind of basic laws of physics that so much water could have been held in the atmosphere at all…?”