ROUGH WEATHER

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 October 1944, Page 2

ROUGH WEATHER

WIND, 'RAIN & SNOW

Greymouth experienced another stormy week-end, with a succession of heavy rain and hail showers which brought the year’s fall to date to 99.27 inches, 82 points being recorded for •the 24 hours up to 9 a.m. yesterday and a further 33 points up to tins morning. A southerly, which veered round to the north shortly betpre 9 o’clock this morning, doubtless was responsible for the sharp drop in the temperature, which stood at 47 degrees, compared with 56 on Saturday morning. Snow was still falling on the Southern Alps during this morning, and there was a sprinkling on the Paparoa Ranges. . _ A four-knot fresh was runnin o in the Grey River, to-day, after reaching a velocity of seven knots yesterday afternoon, and this may be expected to improve the bar. The strong wind caused three breaks in the telegraph lines between Greymouth and Murchison, and another one seven miles east of Kumara, on Saturday night, and at Arnold Siding _ three trees were blown across the Railways Department’s lines', which were repaired late last evening. ‘ The West Coast Cricket Association’s season was to have been opened, yesterday, but rain and the state of the grounds caused a postponement. The women’s golf match set down to be played at Kaiata during the week-end had to be postponed, and play in the men’s bogey handicap on Saturday was not completed.

GALE IN MARLBOROUGH.

BLENHEIM, October 30

Marlborough experienced one of the worst gales in its history in the early hours of yesterday morning. Many hundreds of trees were blown down, particularly on the Wairau Plain, and havoc was caused to local and inter-island telephone communications and power lines. With very little warning the gale broke out of the north-west a few minutes before one o’clock, when a gust of 70 miles an hour was registered at Woodbourne air station. During the next three and a-half hours there were a dozen gusts of over 60 miles per hour, the worst being one of 68 miles per hour. In one quartermile stretch of highway near the Delta Air Force camp hundreds of 60ft pines were torn out. A large roadside plantation was sent crashing over the 33.000-volt main electric feeder, also breaking the telephone cables connecting Blenheim and the West Coast. One steel electric tower was bent right over. The inter-island telephone circuits were severed north and south of Kaikoura, where trees also crashed over the lines.