BAD WEATHER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16566, 2 June 1914, Page 2

BAD WEATHER.

HEAVY GALE IN THE SOUTH.

SNOWFALL AT THE BLUFF. [From Our Correspondent.] BLUFF, June 1.

A heavy northerly gale, culminating * in a terrific thunderstorm, has held up ■ all shipping at this port. '

The gale was so severe on Saturday night and Sunday that the Shaw, Savill liner Kia Ora could not venture from the wharf, although due to sail on Sat- , urday evening. The Union Company’s Kaiapoi, sailing very light without cargo, got away for Westport at 6 p.m. on Saturday, before the gale was at its full strength, and Captain Doorly is probably sheltering in the Sounds, otherwise the vessel, would have a trying time last night. At one o’clock a terrific thunderstorm burst with intensely vivid lightning, accompanied by hail the size of peas, and continued with less severity throughout the night and morning, the ground being white with hail and snow. The Dog Island cable and also telephone to New River Heads, were fused by lightning, and communication ®as interrupted. The s.s. Moeraki, due to-day from, Hobart, sent a wireless message this morning that she was encountering storms of exceptional severity, and that it' was doubted whether she would reach the Bluff to-night. Snow is falling, and the weathet. shows no immediate sign of clearing.. It is easily the worst storm experienced at the Bluff for years.