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0 Slips and other issues expected for Christchurch District
May 1, 2025 6:40 PM RNZ Live Christchurch mayor warns of potential slips on Banks Peninsula amid ongoing deluge The mayor of Christchurch says parts of Banks Peninsula might start slipping overnight as heavy rain continues to fall. States of emergency have been declared in Christchurch, Banks Peninsula, and the Selwyn District with road closures, widespread flooding and slips impacting the region. In the past 48 hours, more than 200 mm of rain has fallen in Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger told Checkpoint that they declared a state of emergency as a precaution to keep people informed and to assist emergency services if they needed to protect people overnight. "To have the state of emergency so people can go in there in the middle of the night if they have to evacuate someone if they have a medical emergency or something goes terribly wrong, they've got the power to do that," he said. The rain had been very consistent for a long time, but they were anticipating it should start to back off later on Thursday night, Mauger said. He was concerned about a few cracks in the road on the Banks Peninsula that could turn into slips. "There's a crack that's 50 millimetres wide and 100 metres long so if water goes down there, which it will be, there's only one thing going to happen. But it's not if, it's when so better be safe than sorry," Mauger was also keeping an eye on high tide which would hit on Thursday night. "That will come in and sort of put back pressure on and that's the bit that's going to be some grief." At the top of the Heathcote River were massive retention ponds that held more than a million cubic metres of water. They were shut off but full and he acknowledged they could cause some grief with more rain falling. The plan was to start to release them on the outgoing tide on Friday, he said. He encouraged people who were considering evacuating to call the civil defence and emergency line so they could send people around to help them. Become a member of the Lert community to get free alerts and relevant news posts. Faster and more targetted than Facebook. Join here Updated May 1, 2025 6:50 PM
2 Tuesday April 15th storm update
A storm in the tropics (over southern Vanuatu) is unofficially a tropical cyclone this morning - but won’t likely be named due to it’s very short life (a bit like a surfer riding a wave for 1 second before falling off…do you count that?) Fiji Met Service indicates the chances of it being named as a tropical cyclone today as “low to moderate”. The storm’s current status doesn’t matter much though - as it will be morphing into a much larger centre as it moves into NZ from Wed to Sun - and as we said yesterday it runs into powerful high pressure (that high may grow so large east of NZ it makes for even windier and wetter weather in some parts of NZ). LATEST AUCKLAND DETAILS Little has changed in previous days. TUESDAY: We expect ESE winds to build today - becoming brisk in exposed places later but not problematic for most. High cloud thickens. (ESE winds are fairly sheltered in Auckland thanks to the Coromandel Peninsula) WEDNESDAY: Winds shift from ESE to Easterly (stronger direction for Auckland) and winds then also intensify with some rain developing. GALES LIKELY LATELY. THURSDAY: ENE winds strengthen and may be SUSTAINED at gale force (or near it) for a time with gusts anywhere from 90 to 120km/h in the city and region (SEVERE GALE). RAIN HEAVY at times with localised flood/slip risks. FRIDAY: Wind and rain gradually eases back. WEEKEND: Instability worth monitoring for rain/thunderstorms. Wind looks likely to be less of an issue. OUTAGE RISK Remains MODERATE-HIGH for weather related outages region wide - with hills and eastern coastal areas most exposed.
0 Beware of Mainstream Media Headlines.
There are so many click bait headlines out there, we thought we'd clear the murky waters when it comes to weather headlines. Many media outlets use emotive headlines to grab your attention, which often leads to clicks on their sites that generate income for them. Some headlines cause unnecessary upset for many people. Lert Info tries to be as accurate as possible, so if something needs your attention, we word things in a cautious way. These two images are for Friday 5th and Sat 6th April 2025. They are weather models for 7days out showing expectations for a 24hr period. As you can see, one has a lot of rain for parts of the West Coast and the other model has none over the exact same 24hr period. In this situation, we initially say nothing, but check these and other model updates every day. When similarity starts to occur, we dig deeper. When our confidence is about 50% we could start to mention it. Every few hours we reassess and start sending info directly to subscribers that something might be brewing. Within three days we were sending our first alerts. It's not until about 3 or 4 days out can we start to locking in any details. The exception - With Cyclone Gabrielle however, models were alighned two weeks out, so we sent news alerts directly to potentially affected people We also posted on Facebook but only about 30% of followers would have seen it because of how FB distributes posts.
Weatherwatch has adviced us there could be be possible isolated power outages due to wind from Today Friday Jan 17th to Tuesday Jan 21st GALES FRIDAY: Easterlies dominate with gusts into gale force in some exposed areas. Most at risk: North of the city in rural areas and eastern coastal areas. LOW RISK for ISOLATED outages. SATURDAY: East to ESE winds dominate with breezy to gusty weather, mainly below gale (other than marine areas). Most at risk: North of the city in eastern coastal areas. LOW RISK for ISOLATED outages. SUNDAY: Easterlies ramp up more with gusts into gale force and severe gale possible too. Most at risk: North of the city in rural areas and eastern coastal areas, but potentially further southwards over the city as the day goes on). LOW-MODERATE RISK for isolated outages. MONDAY: Easterlies likely reach their peak with severe gales in exposed places. Most at risk: From Auckland city centre northwards. MODERATE RISK for outages, especially eastern and northern areas. TUESDAY: A rain band finally moves in from the north and tracks southwards with windy to gale easterlies - winds look to ease over the day as the rain shifts southwards and winds then turn SE. This rainband may be unstable and could produce localised heavy falls and localised strong winds - but overall winds may start to ease. LOW RISK for outages across the city and region but a MODERATE RISK for severe gales around Great Barrier Island. RAIN: Heavy rain is possible over Monday and Tuesday but the jury is still out on totals. Over this week the numbers have varied between 30 and 50mm which isn’t too problematic, but adds another dimension to those peak winds. WHAT COULD BREAK THIS FORECAST? The low north of NZ is quite messy in design for now, and between that low pressure and the lazy high pressure zone south of the North Island it means both TIMING and PRECISION will shift around in the days ahead. For example, wind maps yesterday for next Tuesday showed damaging winds over Auckland… but in the global data update this morning (at 8am) the modelling shifted that more out to sea and twisted the winds more south-easterly (a much kinder direction for Auckland usually). Because of this we’ll update you each morning over the weekend as we try to “lock in” what is most likely. While there are many global models we all use, the data we have from The Weather Company crunches all that modelling into one forecast. PEAK TIMING Peak time for severe weather looks to be from Sunday PM to Tuesday AM. To get real time alerts if you're not already a subscribers - Click Here
The heavy rain in Dunedin has caused several small slips and the ground is becoming unstable in some locations. Even after the rain stops, slips can still happen so stay alert. Be wary going around corners and only travel if necessary. Report slips to council. Ph 03 477 4000
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