His hobby started with a thermometer, now Graham Taylor’s living room is home to a weather station. Mr Taylor talks to reporter ALEXIA JOHNSTON about how his status as one of Ashburton’s weathermen developed.

Rain, hail or shine – no matter what the weather throws at us it will always be fine indoors, says Graham Taylor.  Mr Taylor observes the weather from his Ashburton home, which, like all abodes in Mid Canterbury, has copped its fair share of flooding, wind and snow in recent months.  However, he doesn’t just wait for nor’west winds to buffet his home or the rain to flood his garden. Instead he watches the district’s weather patterns unfold from his home-based weather station and shares his findings with the world online.

Mr Taylor’s garden is home to a barometer and wind and rain gauge, which records the day’s weather and the changes in store on to a computer in his living room.  It’s not a lifelong passion, but a hobby that has evolved over the past two years.

“It just sort of grew by having a thermometer and I saw it (readings from a weather station) on the internet. I just slowly but surely built it up.”

He said last week’s winds, which overturned vehicles and brought down power lines cutting power to 1000 homes in Mid Canterbury, were among some of the strongest he has recorded since initiating the website.  Last week he recorded a wind speed of 65km/h, one of his highest recordings.  Mr Taylor said although his equipment doesn’t allow him to predict the weather a week in advance he could tell a storm was brewing prior to last week’s events.

“The barometer was dropping quite fast before last week’s winds so I knew the storms were coming – you can sort of guess something’s coming.”

He said it’s during such storms that his recordings are most sought after by locals.
“On a stormy day the counter (on the internet) goes wild.  There’s tremendous interest in it when there’s a storm going on. You can see the page counter going up.”

He also provides nationwide weather details to the New Zealand Weather Network from his website.  Mr Taylor said since establishing his weather station there has also been plenty of talk on the topic among friends and family.

“Some of them ask what the weather’s going to do and my reply is it will be fine indoors.”

But his work isn’t just admired by Mid Cantabrians. He has also been contacted by people from England, US and Europe for information about establishing a weather station.

“I have people all over the world emailing me and asking questions. Often people will email and ask how to set up what I have done.”

He said establishing his own weather station was a matter of trial and error, backed up with help from the internet.  “There is a website where you can ask questions through a question and answer forum. Just like I help people, other people have helped me.”

He said while his first weather station proved unreliable his replacement, which he purchased from the US, has proved quite the opposite and requires very little maintenance.

“The first one, I bought it on the cheap – it only lasted 18 months. The one I’ve got now is excellent.” 

Mr Taylor’s website can be found at http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ghtaylor/weatherdisplay.htm

Tornado terror

By NICOLA BRENNAN - Waikato Times | Saturday, 18 October 2008

DAMAGE: Tony Mills inspects the remains of his roof, which was destroyed by a mini tornado that swept through Cambridge and Lemington.

Residents of a Cambridge rest home had to be evacuated and firemen dived for their lives after a tornado ripped through the town this morning, leaving a trail of roofless homes and downed trees.

Emergency services received more than 30 phone calls between 3-3.30am as more than 100 houses in the tornado's west to east path across Cambridge and Leamington suffered lost or damaged roofs, while trees and power lines were left sprawled on the ground and many cars were damaged.

An 80-year-old old oak tree, on the corner of Carlyle and Browning Streets, was uprooted as the tornado hit the area around Gwyneth Common.

Oakdale Rest Home on the corner of Tennyson and Browning St was one of the worst hit sites.

Waipa Mayor Alan Livingston said though more than 100 homes were damaged and the repair bill was likely to be in the hundreds of thousands, it was "incredibly fortunate" no one was injured, and emergency services were quickly into action.

Damage was mostly to iron roofs with sheets of long run iron ripped off.

"There is (roofing) iron hanging out of trees, power lines, all over the place." He said heavier concrete tile roofs seem to have mostly been left intact. (abridged)

Unsettled Start To The Long Weekend

Wednesday, 22 October 2008 Press Release: MetService

MetService weather forecasters are keeping watch on a depression that is deepening over the Tasman Sea and likely to cross the North Island on Saturday.

This depression may bring a period of heavy rain to some northern parts of the North Island on Friday or Saturday, followed by strong winds at times during Saturday or Sunday, commented Peter Kreft of MetService. People in northern New Zealand planning to travel at the start of the long weekend are likely to encounter some difficult driving weather.

During the weekend, South Islanders are likely to experience much less wet and windy weather, though a cold southerly flow is expected to affect the far south briefly on Sunday.

On Labour Day, the weather in most places should settle down to be fine, sunny and not so windy.

Rough ride in Coastal Classic

Oct 25, 2008

Taeping, sailed by Greg Roake was the first to finish the 2008 HSBC Premier Coastal Classic, finishing at 12.23am on Saturday morning.  The annual Auckland to Russell event was marked by gear failure and withdrawal and Taeping had her own issues on the startline of the race.

First monohull home was V5 (Simon Hull), which started life as a TP52, and she was followed in by Sportivo and Ragtime, or Infidel, as she is better known to some older hands.

PredictWind.com was the next multihull to finish, just after 0435hrs, for a time of over 16 hours, with Hooters finishing 10 minutes later.

The number of withdrawals continues to mount, with 45 boats electing not to start, given the gale warning that was issued for the Cape Brett area.

A mayday call was received from the yacht Soundtrack after running aground at Mangawhai and the Coastguard performed a rescue.

Winds would seem to have been in the 35-40knot mark from a direction just east of north, making a hard sail up the Northland coast before turning for the finish line at Russell.

The withdrawal tally was at 137 on Saturday morning.

By David Bruce on Mon, 27 Oct 2008  Otago Daily Times