Presidential Greetings

After a little arm twisting Richard Turner finally convinced me I should take a turn as President of the Met. Society – thanks Richard.

If any of you should notice some similarity with my name and that of the treasurer it is not a coincidence – Cliff is my father. When we both worked at the MetService (actually shared an office for a year!) I needed special permission due to the public service laws that existed then. I presume we don’t to both be Met Society committee members.

I will be relying on the existing committee to remind me what my duties are – please feel free to let me know. I have no particular agendas to push - apart from wanting to see more of our travel done by cycle and public transport, a greater proportion of our energy supply coming from wind and solar power, a better working relationship between NIWA and MetService and more young people joining the Met Society.  On this last point I would be happy for members to send in suggestions to make being a member of the society more attractive for younger people.

A few members of the society are making their way to Melbourne for the combined Metsoc/Amos conference at the end of January - I hope they have a productive meeting.

I hope you all manage to dodge the ex-tropical cyclones this season.

Mike Revell

Dr Michael Revell

REGIONAL REPORTS Auckland and Wellington

Met Society members were invited to a NIWA seminar held in Auckland on 11 October and in Wellington on 12 October, featuring presentations from visiting meteorologists

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Dr. Marina Baldi presented an investigation into temperature and rainfall seasonal anomalies in the Mediterranean and their connection to the large scale features on the Euro-Atlantic. Dr Baldi was on leave from Institute of Biometeorology (IBIMET – CNR), Rome, Italy. 

The climate of the Mediterranean is governed by both mid- latitude and tropical dynamics; summers are hot and dry, autumns and winters are wet. In the cold season the westerly flow is relatively strong, and important modes are: the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Eastern Atlantic pattern (EA), and the Eastern Atlantic/Western Russia pattern.  In the warm season, the Azores high dominates, sometimes strengthened by the West African Monsoon, and the large scale flow is generally weak, with breezes driven by local thermal gradients, with, towards the end of the season, local extreme precipitation episodes. This is the time of the year that the East Mediterranean is under a ridge connected to the Asian monsoon through Rossby waves.  Dr. Baldi looked at the role of the Atlantic jet and of the African jet.  The Atlantic jet is generated by the thermal contrast between the cold air over the Polar Ocean and the relatively warm air over the Atlantic ocean and crosses this ocean with a north-easterly tilt.  The African jet, generated by the thermal contrast between the African warm air and the Euro-Asian relatively cold air, spans from the west coast of North Africa to the Indian ocean.

In the Mediterranean, summers were hot in the 1950s, 1980s, and 1990, and cool from mid 1960s to mid 1970s; cold seasons were very dry in the 1980s and early 1990s, with an almost monotonic decrease of the rainfall since the 1960s. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Planetary waves and climate and other flows by Dr Giovanni Dalu on leave form Institute of Biometeorology (IBIMET CNR), Rome, Italy 

Planetary waves have a wavelength of thousands of km. They can be stationary or propagate to east or to the west.  They are excited by topographic features, SSTs, and by changes of snow coverage.  There are important since they act as a wave guide for the perturbations.  We are studying the propagation of these perturbations and their transition from the tropics into the mid-latitude, as well as mesoscale flows induced by landscape variability. Landscape variability decreases the temperature in the surface layer, and generates regions of upward vertical motion and a sizable amount of available potential energy, and can make the environment of the lower troposphere more favorable to cloud formation.  This process is enhanced by light ambient wind through the generation of trapped propagating waves. 

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Dr. Xiaogu Zheng  (NIWA) Awarded the 2007 Kidson Medal of the

Meteorological Society of New Zealand

The Meteorological Society of New Zealand has chosen to award its 2007 Kidson Medal to Dr. Xiaogu Zheng of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.  The medal was presented at the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Awards Dinner held in Dunedin on November 21^st.

The medal was awarded for Dr. Zheng’s scientific paper “A study of predictable patterns for seasonal forecasting of New Zealand rainfall” published in the Journal of Climate in 2006.  The panel considering the nominations for this year’s Kidson medal considered this work to be outstanding in regards to the advancement in science that this work provides.  One of the judges commented that “in terms of seriously advancing knowledge and capability on climate forecasting, the paper of Dr Zheng will soon be regarded as a landmark paper, not only for its relevance to New Zealand needs but for most regions in the Southern Hemisphere.  It provides remarkable mathematical rigour to the complex world of integrating different components of the climate system.” 

Dr. and Mrs. Xiaogu Zheng at the presentation ceremony as part of the AGM and International Polar Year seminar held at NIWA in Wellington last November.

The Kidson Medal award is named in honour of Dr Edward Kidson, Director of the New Zealand Meteorological Service from 1927 to 1939.  Kidson is credited as the first to place New Zealand meteorology on the sound scientific basis it currently enjoys.  His scientific work in meteorology covered a wide field and he had an international reputation for his papers on Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation.  His papers on New Zealand's climate remained standard works for many years.  The Edward Kidson medal is awarded to the author of an outstanding paper published in a refereed scientific journal during the preceding three years.

Kim Dirks

President of the Meteorological Society of New Zealand, 2007

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Auditor:  Our thanks to Alaric Tomlinson who has been able to act as Met Society auditor over the past seven years in his retirement.  We are now looking for a new auditor: someone willing to look over our accounts once a year, in July, and acknowledge that they are a true and complete record of proceedings.  If you or someone you know is willing to help the Met Society in this way please let us know with an email to our secretary, s.kjellberg@....

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PHOTO COMPETITION

Come on folks--- I haven’t received any entries yet, and yet we have had lots of weather.  Please remember to put that digital camera in your bag ready for that rare cloud.  Or even to send us your cellphone camera snaps. 

Bob McDavitt

Conditions Of Entry:

SNAP WHAT YOU SEE.  Entry is open to all individuals resident in NZ (but not the photo judging committee or their immediate family). Note date and place of the image.

The deadline for entries is 30 June 2008.  There is no entry fee.  No more than ten entries accepted per entrant.  In return for entering your image for consideration, Met Society reserves the right to put your image (adequately acknowledged) on the http://metsoc.rsnz.org web site.  This means that we ask that you do not transfer publication rights for your entry to any third party until after the competition is finished.  All other rights remain with the contributor.

Have fun and keep checking our web site to see the new entries as they arrive during the four seasons!

Image Content:  

Photos/images are to be taken in NZ between now and June 2008.  Image must be a true reproduction of what the viewer could see in a single frame and not blended, modified or enhanced in any way.  Cropping is allowed.  If any identifiable people appear in the photos their written permission to submit must be included. Nothing illegal. There are no categories and no theme, but if it isn't related to the weather it will not go far with our judges.

Judging And Prizes

No more than one prize per entrant. First prize is three years free subscription to Met. Society (value $75).  Second prize is two years subscription (value $50) and third prize one year subscription (value $25). Images will be voted on by a panel of judges consisting of our photo subcommittee plus an independent expert with a professional eye.  Winners are to be announced on the Met Society web site on 1 August 2008, the start of the financial/subscription year for the Society.

 Email it to bobmcd@... or post to "Met Soc competition, unit 5, 53 Hamilton Road, Herne Bay Auckland".