Fleet shelters from a chill wind

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 2

Fleet shelters from a chill wind

A small fleet of Japanese fishing boats took refuge in the lee of Banks Peninsula from the southerly front which passed over Canterbury yesterday. Part of the fleet is pictured above. About 20 boats took shelter off Taylors Mistake and Pigeon Bay from the southerly winds which peaked at 40 knots yesterday morning. It is expected most of the boats will return to their fishing grounds off the Canterbury coast early this morning. Christchurch was buffeted by 40-knot gusts for an hour yesterday morning. A south-westerly front hit the city about 7 a.m. and brought a sudden change from the warm north-west-erlies. Temperatures dropped from 16 degrees to 7 degrees and remained low most of

A forecaster at the weather office, Mr Roger Ridley, said that the sudden change in temperature was not unusually severe for this time of year but it would have taken a few people by surprise “especially as they were getting out of bed,” he said. The wind had blown strongly for about an hour and dropped away during the day. Some rain fell about an hour after the gusts, he said. Mr Ridley said he had not heard of any severe damage caused by the gusts. “One or two isolated places may have had a tree blown over,” he said. The sudden change was caused by a cold surge of air from the Antarctic regions. “This time of year, as we go into winter, tempera-

hires get cold down south in the oceans. The right situations bring the cold air up north to New Zealand,” he said. The cold front had brought snow to Queenstown, and hail and snow to Dunedin and Invercargill. Mr Ridley said the passage through Christchurch had been a little bit unexpected. The weather office had known the cold front was moving up from the South but they had not expected it to be quite so severe when it went through Christchurch. Although the gusts were strong, they did not reach gale force. Winds have to reach S 3 knots or more for a continuous 10 minutes before being recognised as a gale.