A day of extreme weather Down-Under

Climate chaos Down-Under

Seemorerocks

I woke up to news this morning, not only of a 320,000 square kilometers of ice inthe Arctic melting in one day (New Zealand has a total and area of 268,000 square kilometres) - but also to news of severe flooding in Hokitika on the west coast of the South Island.

400 mm (17 inches) of rain fell overnight and an area that normally absorbs large amounts of water was inundated.

Meanwhile, across the Main Divide (and the maximum with of the country is 400 km), in the south of the country - in South Canterbury and Otago - there were blizzards and the photos were reminiscent of scenes from Russia

It has been raining steadily in the centre of the country and temperatures have been warm. The temperature in the kitchen which I measure every day before any human activity was a warm 17C (62F).

Just so you understand that this is NOT normal have a look at these photos.

Until the rain came today there were a good number of leaves left on our magnolia tree (which would normally lose its leaves long before now).

This is how its still looked this morning

Meanwhile, 2 days short of the shortest day and before the coldest weather at east one of our shrubs has come out in spring blossom.



The weather is coming up from the south (why is it so damned warm?) and the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington is threatened by flood.

Here Pam and I discuss some of the extreme weather and the link with rapid climate change