What's the Weather like at your place?

[nitpicker1]

I am delighted that our microclimate has delivered the goods as we had ordered; a few days of thick misty fog then last night about 15mm mostly fine today and more to come in the next few days, as good as retail therapy.

Back to 4 layers of clothes for and off to town for me.   

[nitpicker1]

Valid to 9:06pm Sunday 8 Mar 2015


SEVERE WEATHER WATCH FOR ISSUED BY METSERVICE AT 0906hrs 08-Mar-2015

WIND AND RAIN HAS EASED, ALL WATCHES CANCELLED

NO FURTHER SEVERE WEATHER WATCHES WILL BE ISSUED

http://metservice.com/warnings/severe-weather-watch

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Yesterday the weather was weird.

Hot and sunny one moment, then dark skies & pissing down with rain the next.

Then back to hot & sunny again, followed by more dark skies & pissing down with rain.

High winds accompanied the schizophrenic weather.

Then, last night there was a big thunderstorm somewhere. I could hear it in the distance.

Today is mostly cloudy, but the sun is shining through gaps in the clouds when it can. No rain though, and no wind....it's dead calm.

 

[reality]

Bangkok, Thailand.....a steamy 35, hazy, fine and still....😩

Rather be back in the best country in the world😜

[nitpicker1]

 
Latest on cyclone Pam:
 
 http://blog.metservice.com/

[reality]

Siem Reap, Cambodia...28C, still and fine and dry....beautiful day....to nice to be working😜

[reality]

Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia...29c, fine , light breeze, hazy.

....camp S-21 , and .."The Killing Fields"

..a very good and compelling lesson why communism does not work....1.7 million dead... men , women and children starved to death....or beaten to death to save bullets...

..and  so recently...only from 1975 to 1979

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge managed to hide it all from the ( civilised ) world😳

[nitpicker1]

Yesterday the weather was weird.

Hot and sunny one moment, then dark skies & pissing down with rain the next.

Then back to hot & sunny again, followed by more dark skies & pissing down with rain.

High winds accompanied the schizophrenic weather.

Then, last night there was a big thunderstorm somewhere. I could hear it in the distance.

Today is mostly cloudy, but the sun is shining through gaps in the clouds when it can. No rain though, and no wind....it's dead calm.

 

RURAL MONTHLY OUTLOOK APRIL 2015 
 
LOOKING BACK AT MARCH
Low pressures affected New Zealand during March, bringing healthy rainfalls to most locations. The exception was the eastern South Island and Wairarapa, where rainfall was patchy and below normal. Soils in Marlborough, Canterbury and parts of Otago continue in significant deficit. Northwesterlies characterised the start of March, bringing rain into western regions, as well as Nelson and Marlborough. Afternoon showers produced patchy rain for some inland spots during the second week, while Cyclone Pam produced useful rain for farmers in the northeast North Island mid-month. Lows returned to close the month, delivering a showery top-up for most. It was a warmer than usual March, except for Gisborne and the southeast South Island (who had near average temperatures).
 
 from http://www.metservice.com/national/home

meanwhile
http://videowall.accuweather.com/detail/videos/top-videos/video/4149315457001/sandstorm-moves-from-saudi-arabia-to-dubai?autoStart=true

[reality]

Hanoi, capital of Vietnam....beautiful old city...very busy town...

28c, fine, and light breeze....bia Hoi ....local fresh beer brewed daily 25cents...goes down well (between jobs of course😜)

[reality]

Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay, Vietnam........28c clear and calm.....but down to only 23 at night😳

...vast quantities of wood burnt domestically everyday for cooking and heat😳

......beautiful part of the world.....but as always....work must come first😳

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

(click on the picture to read the news story)

[reality]

Bangkok, Thailand.....a steaming hot 36c......hazy, smog, still, good weather for cold beer, spicy food😜

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Bangkok, Thailand.....a steaming hot 36c......hazy, smog, still, good weather for cold beer, spicy food

Some photographs would be nice so we can see you aren't bullshitting....

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Some photographs taken yesterday (May 1st) showing the weather at the bottom of New Zealand's North Island, travelling alongside the western shoreline of Wellington Harbour, then crossing the Hutt River near Silverstream....








Early this morning (May 2nd), travelling southwest through the Wairarapa countryside and up the hill past Lake Wairarapa....








Also this morning, on the other side of the ranges heading into Wellington alongside the harbour, then the approach to Wellington Railway Station....












On the way home again and back out in the country in the Mangaroa Valley not far before passing through the 8.8km-long (5½-miles) Rimutaka Tunnel to Wairarapa...

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

It was a rather grey day at the bottom of the North Island of NZ today. Later in the day it turned to heavy rain on the Wellington side of the ranges, although there was only light drizzle in Wairarapa.


The Waiohine River valley in Wairarapa this morning....




Autumn colours at Woodside....




Autumn colours on the other side of the ranges at Upper Hutt, late-morning....




Wellington Harbour just before lunchtime....




The Hutt River looking north from Pomare early afternoon....




Back on the Wairarapa side of the ranges, a rainbow over Lake Wairarapa with the Aorangi Ranges in the background....




The Waingawa River valley looking towards the Tararua Ranges late afternoon....

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

I never get sick of the view outside my office window when I'm at work....it is forever changing.


Another overcast day in Wairarapa today, with rain on the Wellington side of the ranges. However, the rivers were in bank-to-bank flood mode in Wairarapa, so it was obviously pissing down in the Tararua Ranges. The Hutt River was really high too.

I chased this rainbow from just outside Masterton all the way down through the Wairarapa valley this morning, and up the hill into the Rimutaka Ranges until about a kilometre before the Rimutaka Tunnel, when it disappeared. At times I could almost see the two pots of gold at either end of the rainbow....that's how close they were. Heading up the hill into the ranges, one end of the rainbow was literally right in front of the locomotive keeping pace with the train. If there had been a pot of gold there, I would have been looking straight at it about thirty metres in front of me....




Heading back to Wairarapa early afternoon near Silverstream in the Hutt Valley....






Departing Masterton late afternoon on a second return trip to Wellington....




When I popped out of the Rimutaka Tunnel on the Wairarapa side early this evening, the sky was full of stars, so it looks as though the bad weather has gone away.

I've got five days off now....back to work early next Wednesday.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Today was a gorgeous late-autumn day in Wairarapa at the bottom of NZ's North Island. A great day to head down to Palliser Bay.


Here are a couple of photographs looking towards the west, the first from Lake Ferry looking across Lake Onoke towards Mount Matthews (the highest peak in the Rimutaka Range), with the second taken from the road to Ngawi looking across the western side of Palliser Bay towards Turikirae Head....






In the opposite direction, this is looking towards the beach settlement of Humenga and Te Humenga Point....




The fishing village of Ngawi is the bulldozer capital of New Zealand (they use them to launch boats)....






The road from Ngawi to Cape Palliser is a bit rough & ready in places....




Cape Palliser is the southern-most point of NZ's North Island (Te Ika a Maui) and its most famous feature is the iconic lighthouse....










Travelling back from Cape Palliser towards Ngawi, you can see the South Island (Te Wai Pounamu) and Kaikoura Ranges in the distance....








Finally, three photos taken from the Wharekauhau side of Lake Onoke late-afternoon looking towards Cape Palliser, Lake Ferry and the Aorangi Range....

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Yet more beautiful autumn weather in Wairarapa today.


A couple of photographs taken near Ngatoka on the road to Castlepoint....






Mid-afternoon at Castlepoint....a magical late-autumn day and another iconic lighthouse on the wild Wairarapa coast....

[guest49]

In Adelaide this morning, it is cool and overcast with promise of showers

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

What a day at the bottom of the North Island!

I turned up to work at 4:00AM this morning to discover a yard full of rakes of passenger cars where they shouldn't be, locomotives likewise where the shouldn't be, and a derailed locomotive “in the dirt” at the south end of the yard stradling a set of badly-damaged points and completely blocking the entrance to the south-end of the security cage where we lock passenger trains up overnight, supposedly safe from tagers. Bugger!

So there was nothing for it but to sort out a concist for the first train out of Wairarapa, bound for Wellington. Because every road in the yard was blocked, and the locomotives that weren't derailed were at the wrong end, it involved some extremely complicated and creative shunting to dig-out the right set, get a locomotive on the correct end, and get it to the platform, all the while endeavering to not snooker any further moves for the second passenger train out of the place. Because of the derailed locomotive, it was obvious that the third passenger train would not be going anywhere.

I finally managed to get everything sorted out and the first train at the platform only five minutes before it was scheduled to depart (due out at 5:45AM). By the time I then sorted out the paperwork, the train finally got away only four minutes late, which I thought was a pretty good effort, considering.

I ran the first train down through Wairarapa and ended up with a much bigger passenger load than normal, as most of the regular commuters would have started receiving automatically-generated text messages from about 5:00AM onwards warning them about the cancellation of the third train, so many people turned up to catch the earlier train rather than put up with the anticipated “crush” on the second train.

However, so far, so good — weatherwise — it was mostly fine in Wairarapa, although with the occasional passing light shower.

Out of the Rimutaka Tunnel on the Wellington side and it was pissing down so hard in the Mangaroa Valley that the windscreen wipers couldn't cope. After picking up passengers at Maymorn, it was through the second tunnel to Timberlea (a suburb of Upper Hutt) and down the hill to Upper Hutt central. It was absolutely pissing down all the way down the hill until just before Upper Hutt station.

From Upper Hutt into Wellington, the weather wasn't too bad, although the Hutt River was in pretty full-on flood from bank-to-bank, and I could hear on the radio all about the chaos in Kapiti, with motorists stranded and trains stopped by flooding and slips.

I made it into Wellington and after the usual turn-around, got out of there and headed for home. I had an uneventual run up the Hutt Valley in continuous rain, although it wasn't too heavy. Up the hill and through the first tunnel to the Mangaroa Valley where the rain had eased, although the Mangaroa River was in flood. Through the big Rimutaka Tunnel to Wairarapa and the train emerged into a nice fine, although overcast day. I made it home to Masterton with no dramas, and the Wairarapa rivers were only carrying slightly higher than normal flows.

After doing the turnaround, I stepped off and headed out the gate....another driver took over for the second return trip to Wellington of that particular train concist.

Now I hear things have totally turned to custard in Wellington and Kapiti, with both SH1 and SH2 closed, and all railway lines shut by the weather, flooding and slips.

Yet here in Wairarapa, we are only getting occasional very light passing showers. I guess we are being shelted from the weather-bomb by the big mountain ranges separating us from Wellington and Kapiti.



                                   (click on the picture to read the news story)



                                   (click on the picture to read the news story)

[nitpicker1]

 ...a yard full of rakes of passenger cars where they shouldn't be, locomotives likewise where the shouldn't be, and a derailed locomotive “in the dirt” at the south end of the yard stradling a set of badly-damaged points and completely blocking the entrance to the south-end of the security cage where we lock passenger trains up overnight, supposedly safe from tagers. Bugger! ...


UMMMM  those heavy bits of machinery FLOATED  ! ?

or

vandals
 
or

Poltergeists ? 

[Alicat]

I worked early shift yesterday. It wasn't that flash driving to work at 5.30am. It started to turn to custard fairly quickly. Some late shift staff weren't able to make it to work because of road closures. I was due to finish at 4.00pm but they told me to go home at 3.15pm. At that stage SH 2 at the Ngauranga Interchange had re-opened (again) but just before I made it there they had to close the road again. (Even though it was closed at Petone, I had planned on diverting through there, into Lower Hutt then back onto SH 2 a little further north). I had to head up SH 1 Ngauranga with the intent of cutting through Whitby at the Police College then taking SH 58 over Haywards Hill. Fat chance. Every man and his bloody dog had that idea.

I left Wellington CBD at 3.15pm and arrived home in Upper Hutt at 8.00pm.

It was easier and quicker driving home tonight as a lot of commuters had stayed home today.

Tomorrow is another day

[Alicat]

I worked early shift yesterday. It wasn't that flash driving to work at 5.30am. It started to turn to custard fairly quickly. Some late shift staff weren't able to make it to work because of road closures. I was due to finish at 4.00pm but they told me to go home at 3.15pm. At that stage SH 2 at the Ngauranga Interchange had re-opened (again) but just before I made it there they had to close the road again. (Even though it was closed at Petone, I had planned on diverting through there, into Lower Hutt then back onto SH 2 a little further north). I had to head up SH 1 Ngauranga with the intent of cutting through Whitby at the Police College then taking SH 58 over Haywards Hill. Fat chance. Every man and his bloody dog had that idea.

I left Wellington CBD at 3.15pm and arrived home in Upper Hutt at 8.00pm.

It was easier and quicker driving home tonight as a lot of commuters had stayed home today.

Tomorrow is another day

[nitpicker1]

 
I think our drought has broken

[Alicat]

I think our drought has broken

In dramatic fashion!