A SOUTHERLY GALE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 132, 1 December 1936, Page 10

A SOUTHERLY GALE

MINOR DAMAGE DONE

UNSEASONABLE CONDITIONS

November having terminated its wet and. cheerless existence with three consecutive days of miserably wet wea'.her, more in accordance with winter: than summer, and with yesterday's fonocast that "an improvement could be: expected from today," there were not wanting optimists who hoped to wiake up to sunshine this morning. But they were rudely disappointed, and although December is supposed to be the first of the summer months what Ihe clerk of the weather has produced "for December 1 is a distinct reversion to winter. Instead of sunshine this morning, Wellington woke up to a howling southerly gale, with conditions rather worse than they have been since last Saturday—and they were bad enough. There was a little over an hour's sunshine early yesterday morning—the first since last Friday, but when yesterday morning's northerly wind changed to the south in the afternoon conditions became steadily more and more unpleasant and would have been no disgrace to July. Rain fell steadily yesterday afternoon and last night, the southerly meanwhile increasing to gale force. The strongest gust was one about 8 a.m. today, this blowing with a velocity of 57 miles an hour. At Kelburn up to 9 a.m. today the rainfall had totalled 85 points, another substantial addition to the heavy rainfall recently experienced. In the Hutt Valley early this morning the rain seemed worse than it was in the city. The gale has done minor damage in some parts of the city and suburbs, in addition to interfering with shipping and work on the waterfront. When the tide was high early this morning the wind lashed the harbour waters with considerable fury and waves broke right across the Hutt railway line. No serious dislocation of railway traffic, however, was caused. Some of the small craft moored in rather exposed positions in the harbour broke loose, and a yacht at Evans Bay, left high and dry on the beach as the tide receded, is silent testimony as to this kind of occurrence. BAD WEATHER GENERAL. The cause of the present disturbed weather has been an intense depression. This, after crossing the Dominion, has remained centred near the Chatham Islands, and as pressure has been rising over New Zealand owing to the approach from the Tasman Sea of an anticyclone, pressure gradients have become steep, hence the strong southwesterly to southerly winds which have been and are sweeping the Dominion. Gale force has been reached in many places, especially in the Cook Strait area and along the East Coast. The weather generally, throughout the Dominion and not only in Wellington, has been cold, unsettled, and squally. Rain has fallen in most parts of the country, with some heavy falls in East Coast and central districts. By this morning conditions had improved somewhat on the West Coast of the South Island, but otherwise conditions were still very rough and unsettled, and still more like winter than summer. IN OTHER CENTRES. The weather in other centres has been nearly as unpleasant as that experienced in Wellington. Auckland had squally and showery weather yesterday and last night, with a fresh westerly to south-westerly wind. At 9 a.m. today it was overcast with a light wind from the south-south-west. Christchurch has had a continuance of very cold and wintry conditions, steady rain accompanying a south-west-erly wind. A strong south-westerly gale blew there last night, and at 9 a.m. today it was still raining, 160 points having been recorded up to that hour. Dunedin's weather has been cold, dull, and threatening, with a strong south-westerly wind. Showers 101 l there last night, and it was still,showery this morning and a moderate southerly gale was blowing.