Thunderstorms Bring Brief But Heavy Rain

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30630, 22 December 1964, Page 1

Thunderstorms Bring Brief But Heavy Rain

Thunderstorms wandered over Canterbury yesterday bringing rainfalls varying from a quarter of an inch to 5.25 inches in torrential showers in periods varying from half an hour to two hours.

No serious damage was done except on a pig farm at Springston where 54 piglets were drowned when water banked up against fences. However, that farmer was still cheerful because he said the rain would double the weight of his potatoes.

The Weather Office at Christchurch Airport said the thunderstorms were predictable when, after more than a week of hot weather, there was a southerly change on Sunday night and the buildup of moisture became heavy in the clouds.

Mr G. S. Meyer’s Springston farm seems to have been hit hardest. His rain gauge, emptied on Sunday evening, contained 5.25 inches after the storm raged overhead from 2.30 a.m. to 5 a.m. This would approach a New Zealand record for the period but his gauge was the wedge type which sometimes, according to the Weather Office, collects run-off from the post to which it is fixed. But the Weather Office concedes, from observers’ reports, that the area had a very heavy fall. Mr Meyer was cheerful last evening in spite of his loss of 54 piglets. “I lost seven litters, I run 150 sows, and 100 more will farrow this month so the proportion is not too great,” he said. “I also have a volunteer (self-sown) potato crop which will double in weight through the rain.” The thunderstorm came in from the west from Rolleston and seemed to expend itself at Ladbrooks. Mr Meyer said. Rain came down in sheets with loud claps of thunder and vivid displays of lightning.

The piglets drowned be-

cause of water banking up against gorse fences planted on old sod walls. Mr Meyer

runs his pigs in open paddocks, like sheep, with the farrowing houses scattered as on open-range fowl farms. A few wire fences would have saved all trouble, he said. Mr A. J. Breading, who farms near the Bankside railway station, heard heavy rain start at 4.30 a.m. By 6 a.m. his rain gauge recorded two inches of rain and by 7.30 am. 2.58 inches. He had been wakened by a dog which was up to its belly in water and found his paddocks were sheets of water. Yet a neighbour, three or four miles away, was able to drill in turnip and grass seed later in the morning.

Meanwhile areas close by had little rain. Official observers for the Weather Office reported 25 points at Lincoln College, the same at Springston township and 67 points at Greenpark. The swathe of torrential rain seems to have been only about a mile wide.

North Canterbury After an early-morning foothills shower of 14 points, most of the Oxford district had heavy rain during two hours in the afternoon, 75 points being recorded in one area. The rain will be most beneficial to the flat country and should do much to replenish water-holes, according to one farmer who said he

had never known water courses and water holes to be so low during December. “One clap of thunder and a short burst of rain for about 15 minutes,” described the situation at Waikari.

Steady rain began falling in the Rangiora area about 5.40 p.m.

City Storm

Christchurch city had a rain storm between 4.15 and 4.45 p.m. and 30 points of rain was recorded. Gutters overflowed, some streets were briefly under water, and women in summer frocks scurried home from Christmas shopping drenched to the skin. Nobody seemed to have taken coats because temperatures approached 70 degrees.

Mid-Canterbury Fall

More than two inches of rain fell at Seafield and other areas on the Ashburton coast during the early hours of yesterday morning. The rain was of inestimable benefit to the district, which has been one of the worst hit in the severe drought this year.

Less than half the usual annual rainfall had been recorded in some of these areas this year, recent rains falling further inland towards the foothills.

Heavy rain also fell at Pendarves early yesterday morning, starting at 1 a.m. with a thunderstorm. Steady rain continued until late yesterday morning. Areas further inland had only light falls and the official reading at the Ashburton Domain was .27in to 9 a.m. yesterday.