More Fog!

As I had predicted, the fog returned this evening. At this point it is no where near as bad as yesterday evening. I had to go shopping, so I took the long way to the supermarket [via the airport :-)] and took a photo from a couple of beaches at Lyall Bay and Island Bay.

I've converted to these images to monochrome... they just look better.

... still rolling in

... and now the visibility is well under 100 meters. This photo taken at 8:07pm this evening and I imagine it will get worse...  Welcome to summer :-)

Here comes the fog

After a really nice, dare I suggest even hot, day in Wellington today, it was obvious that was about to change as evening came. Bussing home, the fog was rolling in from the south over the airport and now it has arrived at home. What follows are two photos taken at 6:36pm and then two more at 7:30pm.

What a difference an hour makes. At least it won't be too hot tonight :-)

Repaint time... the prep continues

Following on from Thursday's start to the trimming of trees, the skip bin arrived yesterday and we started filling it today.

Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating... but we have the bin for a whole week, so plenty of time to get it filled up. If the photo makes the skip bin already look full, it's no problems because the plant material will crush down a lot... just as well, as we have flax bushes with designs on world domination :-)

Red sky at night...

The last few days have been fairly windy in Wellington. No surprise there, and today was no exception.

Thankfully my house is sheltered from the prevalent northerly winds, and often it just results in interesting days watching the clouds go by.

Today's photo was taken at about 9pm this evening. Red sky and some low clouds scooting past. I should have taken some photos earlier today where there were a lot of lenticular clouds hanging around at higher altitudes. Anyway, here is the outlook from my home looking south-west.

The last of "Snowmageddon"

Driving home this afternoon, I caught sight of the last of the snow which was deposited on the Rimutaka Ranges during the recent "Snowmageddon" event, where a "polar blast" popped up and across the country (for the "weather for idiots" guide, check out the official Met Service blog here).

Anyway, here is the best photo I took. This was taken looking east across Lyall Bay. As you an see, the weather has improved a lot in the past few days!

Panorama across the harbour to the snow-covered ranges

This image is a panorama that I created today by taking a series of pictures from the kitchen at my workplace. It has turned out OK, although if you look closely you can see that the free Canon software has struggled with a few of the joins [mega points and kudos if you can find 1/2 an Air New Zealand B737 in there somewhere :-)].

Remember to click on the image for a larger view!

They say it's a "1 in 50 year" storm...

... and that's perhaps easy enough to believe.

As you'll see in the photos below, it has been snowing on and off during the day [the first photo was taken from work this morning], and as the subsequent photos show, its much worse this evening than yesterday evening.

This evening the winds are up [!], there's been thunder and lightening, my deck is covered in ice, and likewise the pathway I had to [very slowly] walk up this evening. Add to that, I dropped a colleague off home this evening, and he's even higher up on a hill, and as the second photo shows, there's snow and lots of ice on the roads, and it's a steep road :-). The final 3 photos show the view from my place. Ice covered roads and an ice covered car [Mum, Dad, don't worry - I'm looking after your car :-)].

Driving home was hazardous with all the ice - I lost traction 4 or 5 times, albeit only very briefly. Fortunately I was driving slowly and didn't hit the brakes, so there was nothing too much too it - a bit unnerving at times on the hills though. Don't think I'll go anywhere tonight though, that would be asking for trouble. I checked the wheel tracks left by my car as soon as I got out, and they were smooth ice - ouch!

Inside all is warm with the heat pump and double glazing, although the lights have been flickering a bit, so the power network is getting a good workout.

Anyway, here's the photos. Not sure if I will get into work tomorrow - if it eases off a bit I might be able to make it, but if it's all ice, I won't be going near a car, or public buses.

Snow in Wellington!

Snow has been forecast for Wellington today and the next two days. It's reasonably common to get snow on the surrounding hills, but forecasts were for snow as low as sea-level, and this is definitely a less common occurrence! Certainly in the [almost] 6 years I've been here, I've never actually seen it snowing, and yet late afternoon it started to snow at home.

Very little settled on the ground, but there was plenty of ice left on my deck and windows.

It's a bit dark now, but it looks like there might have been a bit of snow on the hills just a couple of kms away from here - also never seen in the past few years.

Hopefully there will be more pictures over the next few days if the forecasts are right. 

Two photos - one of the windowsill, and the second of some of the snowfall. This second photo is dark, as I used the flash to capture the snowflakes, but this didn't illuminate the background... I might have a play with some settings later on.

Remember to click on the photos for a larger version. Enjoy!

A little breezy today...

There was a bit of wind around today - not to much, but enough to be noticeable [gusting up around 35 knots or 65 km/hr].

Driving home, I caught sight of something very interesting in the Wellington suburb of Island Bay - sand was being blown up the beach, over the concrete barrier and over the road. After driving through this [the car sounded like it was being gently sand blasted], I turned around, drive back and parked upwind to get some photos.

The first photo is across the small bay, the second is one of the better photos and the last is a close-up from the first photo. You will need to click on the photos for a larger view. Enjoy!

A beautiful day in Wellington! Now for the fog...!?

It has been a fantastic day in Wellington weather-wise with the bright yellow orb in the sky :-) present most of the day. It's been a welcome change, even though I was stuck inside most of the day :-)

Being Wellington, it couldn't be that simple. This evening I noticed that below the bright blue sky there was a layer of cloud [!] creeping in. A quick trip to a vantage point showed fog to the south of the city, creeping up over the south of the city, particularly just over the airport. I also heard what sounded like a ship's fog horn sounding several times.

Turns out that it was some warm, moist, air from the north colliding with some cooler air to the south, and, voila, fog.

Still a really nice day, and my camera is getting some practice in the sunshine :-)! Here are a few of the pictures.

A Wellington summer

It is summer here in Wellington, but in recent weeks, the weather has been a real shocker. Yesterday was strong winds, rain and cold. Today was warmer, much less rain, and the wind was not an issue. Still there was very little sun to be seen.

The following pictures are the scenic views :-) from my home this evening... the visibility only looks to be getting worse. Before anyone reminds me of the freezing temperatures and snow in much of Europe, North America and other places... At least you are in winter!