It is supposed to be summer in NZ. If you are in the top half of the north island, where I grew up, you could swim from when you got out of school (early December) until Easter.
Yeah, right. Despite living in the south for six years, where I have learnt to consider 15 degrees (60 for you farenheit types) war, it was too cold for me to swim – until after Christmas, and even then there were days where it was too cold to strip down to your togs.
And yesterday, in Dunedin, I got caught in sleety rain. I called a cab to pick me up from the shop I sheltered in… and the sleet was freezing to his windscreen.
Well, Metservice says it will continue for a bit longer.
Umbrellas and raincoats will be needed for a few more days, especially in the mainland, before settled weather finally arrives, MetService says.
Another trough would “slide up the country” this weekend bringing wind and rain, mostly to western places, meteorologist Daniel Corbett said.
“Then it looks like the weather will start to settle down as we head into the new week.”
The front will be most active over the West Coast of the South Island where the heaviest falls were likely.
A weather watch has also been put in place for Otago, with 30mm to 40mm of rain expected for headwaters tomorrow morning.
Well, it could be worse. There have been blizzards through the midwest of the US and praries in Canada — and in the UK… heating your house is costing.
Demand for gas was around 385 mcm on Thursday, about a quarter higher than the seasonal norm.
“It was easily the coldest night of the winter so far in many parts of Britain, (and) the biggest storage sites are withdrawing as much as gas as they can,” one trader said.
The prompt contract also made big gains, trading at 72.50 pence, up 2.90 pence or almost 4.2 percent. The contract earlier peaked at 75 pence for the day, spiking 8.5 percent.
Gas piped from the UK gas fields dropped to 121 mcm early on Thursday from 129 mcm on Wednesday morning, but by 1445 GMT had recovered to 126 mcm, National Grid data showed.
Supply from the IUK pipeline increased on Thursday morning to 34 mcm from 18 mcm on Wednesday, which helped to meet demand, analysts at Reuters Point Carbon said.
Britain is likely to remain gripped by icy weather well into next week, the Met Office said.
Well, if there is global warming, bring it on. Otherwise I’ll have to start burning wood or start firing up the heat pump.
