Friday 10 July 2015

New Zealand continues to be exposed to Antarctic air

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.





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."

MatawaiSomeone'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.

Gisborne District Council warns motorists to take extra care on extremely dangerous roads. Photo: SUPPLIED / GDC

Mr 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.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".

Heavy snow on the Naiper to Taupo Road. 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."

Titiokura Summit, Hawke's Bay. 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.
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. Th
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
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.

For now this is how it is looking Down-Under



Meanwhile in the Northern Hemisphere

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