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This is storm #5 in 6 weeks in this country.
Gisbourne, which is in the NE of the country, is isolated from the rest of the country, partially because neo-liberal governments have shut down rail links.
Meanwhile Brisbane in the winterless north of Australia is about to see frigid conditions.
Gisbourne, which is in the NE of the country, is isolated from the rest of the country, partially because neo-liberal governments have shut down rail links.
Meanwhile Brisbane in the winterless north of Australia is about to see frigid conditions.
Gisborne battles snow, power cuts
10
July, 2015
A
Gisborne doctor says power cuts caused by snow last night left some
patients without essential medical equipment - and others freezing in
uninsulated homes.
About
800 residents in the Gisborne area are still without power after
North Island's east coast woke to a deluge of snow that has also
closed a number of main roads, this morning.
Clinical
leader of urban health at Ngati Porou Hauora in Gisborne, Willem
Jordaan, said the power cuts meant some people were unable to use
electrically powered medical equipment.
Mr
Jordaan said no electricity also meant no heating - but many of his
patients could not afford that anyway.
He
said many of his patients lived in homes without insulation, so the
cold came straight in.
"Which
ends up [with] the whole family sleeping in one room to try and keep
warm and out of the draught, which influences the amount of throat
infections in the kids and the whanau, which puts them again at risk
of rheumatic fever.
"Winter
for our patients is always a big crisis.
"If
they don't get the support to follow up and get it fixed, they just
leave it," he said.
The
North Island's east coast woke to a rare deluge of snow this morning.
Radio
New Zealand's correspondent in Gisborne, Murray Robertson,
said he could not remember when he'd last seen so much snow fall on
the Wharerata ranges.
"It's
like a sea of white, it's like looking at a glacier, it's incredibly
pure white across the top of the ranges, and the ranges right through
have got good falls of snow on them."
Someone's
having fun in the snow at the Matawai Hotel, Gisborne. Photo: Matawai
Hotel
He
said locals have told him it's the heaviest fall of snow in Gisborne
for 30 years.
The
Matawai Hotel hosted a dozen extra guests last night who could not
get in or out of Gisborne due to the road closures.
Essie
Langley owns the Matawai Hotel, on the edge of one of the closed
routes into Gisborne.
She
said 12 people stayed last night who were caught out by the closures
- but her rooms were already full with a work group when the extras
showed up.
"We
weren't hoping to take any more guests last night, but we squeezed
them in.
"We've
got an annexe out the back which I cleared stuff out of, and we stuck
them in there and a couple upstairs," she said.
Photo: SUPPLIED
/ GDCMr Langley said among the stranded travellers were families with young children.
Gisborne
was all but cut off by the snow, as State Highway 2 was shut on both
the Opotiki and the Wairoa sides.
State
Highway 2 from Wairoa to Gisborne is now open to one lane of traffic,
but the road into the city from Opotiki remains closed.
Farmers
on East Cape have described the snow falls there as severe as
anything they've ever seen.
Federated
Farmers Gisborne-Wairoa president, Sandra Faulkner, told Morning
Report farmers, and their animals, were coping.
"Farmers
on the East Cape tend to be resilient by nature, or nature forces us
to be that way, between drought and flood and now snow so they will
cope accordingly."
Snow
on the outskirts of Gisborne, last night. Photo: Gisborne
District Council
She
said luckily there were very few lambs in the hills at the moment and
stock was generally in good shape in the region.
White outs cause power out
Every
house in Gisborne lost power at some point last night - and up to 900
customers are still without electricity.
Eastland
Network said snow and lightning were cutting power intermittently
through Gisborne, Wairoa and the East Cost.
Tiwai
Reedy was at hospital with his father in Gisborne when the power went
out last night.
He
said: "The hospital lights went out, but fortunately, at the
hospital the generators kicked in for them.
"Because
Cook Hospital is above Gisborne, you can see the city through the
windows. And after the power went off, the entire city was in
blackness."
He
said his parents are elderly, and the experience was "quite
freightening".
Photo: SUPPLIED
/ Mohaka Rafting
He
said when he headed home about 2am, Gisborne was still "completely
black - it was quite unnerving".
Eastland
Network's general manager, Brent Stewart, said all 20,000 connections
were cut at some point, but not all at the same time.
He
said 900 connection points, which could be a household, business or a
shared connection, were still down, and said repair crews were on the
way to Gisborne to carry out repairs.
"We
are unable to get to many of these areas by road and at the moment
helicopters are also not able to fly," Mr Stewart said.
"We
hope to get helicopters in the air later today."
Photo: SUPPLIED
/ Mohaka Rafting@PhilipDuncan 30 years since we had snow at Whangara pic.twitter.com/UWtikefPiE
— Sarah L (@Sezlinc) July 9, 2015
Plenty of snow at Matawai today @PhilipDuncan Road from Gisborne still closedpic.twitter.com/OV7ajGo3pT
— Don Pearson (@donpnz) July 9, 2015
Antarctic
air mass to send south-east Queensland temperatures plummeting
A
cold air mass that formed over Antarctica is set to strike south-east
Queensland by the weekend, the weather bureau says.
ABC,
9
July, 2015
Forecaster
Michael Knepp said maximum temperatures across the region were
expected to plummet by Sunday as the cold air mass clashed with a
warm air trough moving in from western Queensland.
"You're
really going to feel like winter has arrived come Sunday, with
probably the coldest temperatures we've seen in the south east for
maybe two or three years," he said.
"You're
really going to feel it on Sunday and even on Monday, and Tuesday -
still going to remain cold with temperatures in Brisbane maybe not
getting as high as 15 (degrees Celsius)."
By
Monday, minimum temperatures in the south east are forecast to drop
to 6C and will remain low until later in the week.
Minimum
temperatures on the Granite Belt are forecast to drop below zero,
with Stanthorpe expecting -2C on Monday and Wednesday.
In
other parts of Queensland, including coastal areas, single-digit
overnight temperatures were forecast from Monday until Wednesday.
Rare
thunderstorm expected
Mr
Knepp said the warm air trough would move into south-east Queensland
today, bringing showers and also the chance of a thunderstorm on
Saturday.
"We'll
just see the chances really build up over the next few days as a
trough approaches us from the west," he said.
"This
trough is going to bring a significantly different air mass into
south-east Queensland from Sunday.
"Very
rare to get thunderstorms in July but it just shows you how potent
this trough system will be with this clash of air masses."
He
said the cold, dry, stable Antarctic air mass would remain in the
south east for several days.
"It's
travelled up all the way from the poles," Mr Knepp said.
Meanwhile, in the Northern Hemisphere
Antarctic
Vortex: This colossal conveyor belt of cold will chill eastern
Australia to the bone
THIS
thing is going to be massive. America had its Polar Vortex in 2013,
when frigid air streamed down from the north pole causing major
snowfalls and record cold temperatures.
10
July, 2015
Eastern
Australia, it’s your turn now.
Prepare
for the Antarctic Vortex. That’s not a technical term. It’s the
nickname we’ve given this weather system, but we’re sticking with
it. Others, meanwhile, have developed their own monikers.
#Snownami.
Starts tomorrow. Runs at least 3 days. Probably longer. 50cm minimum.
100cm possible. Maybe more in some places. #BeThere.
-CW
It’s
now only a day or so until the Vortex roars across eastern Australia,
bringing freezing temperatures and the likelihood of prolonged
snowfalls to low levels. In the mountains things have already kicked
off this morning, as the 11am “beer-o-meter” pic demonstrates.
And
here’s a Friday lunchtime picture from Black Sallees Mountain
Bistro in Thredbo, which we’re sure serves generous portions of
delicious everything.
As
you no doubt know, it’s not unusual for the Australian Alps to
experience heavy snowfalls at this time of year. It’s also common
to see snow flurries on some of the higher towns and lesser mountain
ranges in eastern Australia during brief cold outbreaks
But
this storm is different. The Antarctic Vortex will be big and the
Antarctic Vortex will be long-lasting. If forecasts hold true, the
Antarctic Vortex looks set to deliver freezing temps and heavy
snowfalls to a vast arc of eastern Australia from the hills outside
Melbourne to the ranges west of Brisbane.
Here’s
Sunday’s snow forecast:
And
here’s Monday’s:
“It’s
really a very big airmass change,” says Andrew Haig from the Bureau
of Meteorology NSW regional office. “It is a very extensive area of
cold air which has dragged up cold air from a long way south.
Meteorologists
don’t always talk about surface temperatures like the rest of us.
That’s because surface temperatures vary according to elevation,
topography, the “urban heat island” effect in cities, plus a
range of other factors.
Instead,
they talk up about upper air temps, or “uppers” as they call
them. These are a truer reflection of the actual temperature of an
airmass. And the uppers on this incoming storm are mind-blowing.
The dark beast lurks off Western Australia but will cross the continent within a day. Source: NewsComAu
“We’re
looking at uppers not much above zero at three thousand feet,”
Andrew Haig says.
Put
simply, that means any town situated at 900 metres above sea level or
thereabouts (or higher) can expect some serious snowfall. That
includes places like Orange and Katoomba, west of Sydney and Armidale
on the NSW Northern Tablelands.
“The
upshot is these places could get 10 to 20 centimetres of snow if it
all comes off,” Haig says.
The summit of Mt Blue Cow (part of Perisher resort) yesterday before the snow started. The snow in the image is mostly manmade. Pic: Perisher.com.au Source: NewsComAu
The same spot today, as the cloud and snow ahead of the Antarctic Vortex roars its way in. Pic: Perisher.com.au. Source:NewsComAu
As
stated above, snowfalls have already started today in the Snowy
Mountains of NSW and Victorian Alps, as you can see in the images
above and below.
But
the coldest blast is likely to strike Sunday into Monday, when the
snow level is tipped to be as low as 600 metres, which is the level
of most Canberra suburbs.
These
weather systems usually fizzle out shortly after the coldest air
arrives. Not this time. The Antarctic Vortex is different from other
storms not just in its intensity but its likely duration.
This
colossal conveyor belt of cold is set to linger for at least a week —
and we’ll keep you updated with developing news, road closures and
of course snow pics right here.
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