Heavy Snow Forecast between Mohaka & Gisborne City 9th July.

[JennyLeez]

Now I know why I am so cold

Wind Chill is 1.0°C in Wairoa

Wind Chill 0.9°C in Gisborne.
ISSUED BY MetService AT 9:02 am 09-Jul-2015

Heavy snow for the hill country between Mohaka and Gisborne City

A cold southerly flow covering the country is spreading wintry showers over most eastern parts of the country. The heavier, more frequent showers are expected about northern Hawkes Bay and southern parts of Gisborne thorugh to Friday morning. Snow is forecast to 200 metres, with significant accumulations above 400 metres, before the snow level slowly rises during Friday. The largest amounts of snow are expected about the hill country between Gisborne City and Mohaka, where another 20 to 40cm of snow may accumulate above 400 metres.

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[JennyLeez]

A cold snap dumping snow over much of the country has brought the heaviest falls seen in central Hawke's Bay for 35 years.

Wairoa District Council said contractors were working to free motorists who had been trapped by the falling snow on the closed section of State Highway 2 over the Wharerata Range.

- SH2 between Gisborne and Wairoa is closed due to snow
- SH2 between Gisborne and Bay of Plenty (Waioeka Gorge) is closed due to snow and ice

High today for our Gisborne Station 6.8°C
and
Gisborne West 8.0°C

Metservice:

The bitter cold affecting the eastern North Island today was extremely unusual. Temperatures at Gisborne Airport briefly rose to 7.0C, before lowering quickly again. There have only been 4 colder days in the entire 75 year record there!!

[JennyLeez]

Heavy snow has virtually cut off Gisborne from the rest of the country.

The main routes in and out on State Highway 2 - the road passes through the East Cape city - had been closed due to snow and ice, as the wintry blast that has frozen much of the country lashes the North Island.

Gisborne's woes were increased when power was cut to the city overnight.
Gisborne police constable Paul Conyers said his power had gone out at around 2am.
The Eastland Network confirmed several outages in the area.

Snow to 500m had closed the hill roads from Napier and Matawai.

State Highway 1, the Desert Road, was closed due to snow and ice. The main detour route, SH49 from Waiouru and SH4 through National Park, and SH47 to Turangi was also closed.
State Highway 5 the Napier -Taupo Road was closed.
Drivers travelling from Wellington north would need to go through Taranaki.
Police asked drivers to avoid travel if possible, as North Island conditions were poor.

[Phil]

I cannot ever recall Gisborne being isolated by snow before. I do recall on several times where the roads have melted in the heat and trucks cannot get traction up the hills and also when planes could not land on the tarmac runway due to the surface being to sticky, But snow, amazing!!

[JennyLeez]

Totally agree Phil.
I have not seen snow this heavy and far reaching.
A couple of photos for you from the Gisborne District Council.

Our power has been off and on since midnight.
No fresh milk and bread this morning for us in Wairoa. This is a regular occurrence due to flooding but due to Snow, never had this before.
Many stranded up in the high country now. Many without power who can not be reached even with helicopters as conditions too rough.

The last 2 days have broken the maximum high temp record for all our east coast stations. Bitter cold and even worse is the wind chill.

Cheers

[tich]

How low did snow fall in your area and the Gisborne area? I saw a  photo of snow lying at Morere Hot Springs, which must be pretty low.

[JennyLeez]

I can not find any hard core stats here so I can only give you what I have heard.
Mohaka starts at sea level and works its way up. The snow was thick there at higher levels.
That was around 130 metres above SL.
Photo below.

Gisborne City is more or less SL. The closest snow coverage was Riverside Road which is up back of Gisborne around 5kms from the city. From what I gather that was around 80 to 100 metres above SL. There were snow flurries lower but not the same coverage. It did not snow in Gisborne city.
The snow was all inland and up in the ranges. This was the case all the way up to Tokomaru Bay and beyond.
Photo Riverside Road below.

Morere Hot Springs is around 130 metres above SL and is just before you begin the long haul up the Whareratas. The whareratas were totally covered in heavy snow but this is not uncommon. The top would be around 530 metres above SL.

Snow around Wairoa was well up in the ranges. All 3 roads out were blocked on and off so venture out I did not.
So I can still say I have never seen snow

(The above is to the best of my knowledge.)