The weather forecasters had it wrong again. They forecast heavy rain and thunderstorms all over NZ with widespread severe flooding. We are still waiting nearly a week later.

However credit must be given where it is due. There have been very severe thunderstoms but not all over New Zealand. In fact all the thunder and lightning occurred far off the east coast out in the Pacific Ocean.

Of course the forecasters on TV are claiming to be right - there were thunderstorms - lol.

We hope that your weather forecasters get it right from time to time.

Maybe they don't - lol.

Time to move on and consider another weather phenomenon. We all know what fogs are but it is interesting to consider the different kinds of fog.

When air is cooled the amount of water vapour that it can hold decreases. At the dew point temperature, air is saturated. A further fall in temperature will result in condensation of excess water vapour in the form of water droplets. If a sufficiently thick layer of air is moist, condensation can occur throughout giving rise to fog. Visibility is usually reduced to below 1,000 metres.

With no wind at all, fog will form first as shallow streaks near the ground. More usually there is a little prevailing wind serving to spread the fog evenly within one or two hundred metres of the ground. The moister the air, the greater the likelihood of fog forming under clear skies at night when radiation cooling is greatest. As with dew and frost, fog formation is most likely in low-lying grounds and hollows into which colder air sinks, and least likely on hilltops.

Fogs formed as a result of radiation cooling are termed radiation fogs. Advection fogs, in contrast, form when warm humid air from different sources passes over a much colder surface causing condensation. Sea fog in coastal areas is a form of advection fog, formed when warmer sea air comes inland passing over colder land.

Because of our location here, our fogs always seem to be advection fogs. We quite often have warm humid tropical air move down from the north to meet cold fronts moving up from the Antarctic in the south.I have mentioned morning fogs here lately which should not be unexpected as Autumn is regarded as the season when fogs are more likely to occur.

At 7am this morning the outside temperature was 17.6C and our much needed rain fell during the night while we were sound asleep. This morning is clear, calm, and warm.

We are feeling very spoilt.

The weather forecasters are taking us for a ride once again. We were told that we were going to have heavy rain on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Here we are late on Monday evening and all that promised rain is yet to arrive.

A tropical cyclone moving down from the north was supposed to be our saviour but it has been and gone after only touching the far north.

We are getting closer and closer to the beginning of winter but with our weather coming from the tropics the temperatures are much higher than expected. This morning at 7am. the outdoor temperature was 16C.

Here are some terrible but true tornado stories.

The outstanding example of lifting force was the tornado which struck the Empire Builder, a train from Seattle to Chicago, as it sped along at sixty miles an hour near Moorhead, Minnesota, late in the afternoon on May 27, 1931. The tornado hit at almost a right angle. Five of the coaches, each weighing sixty-four tons, were torn loose from the engine and lifted from the rails. One, with its 117 passengers, was carried through the air and laid down in a ditch eighty feet away. The seven other coaches were derailed; only the engine and tender remained on the tracks. One passenger was killed when hurled through a window, and fifty-seven others were injured.

Tornadoes have these five other unusual effects:

1. Stripping. Cats and dogs have been found after a twister with all or part of their fur missing; harnesses have been stripped from horses; chickens have been plucked clean by the wind action.

2. Scattering. Objects often are strewn over wide areas. The bodies of persons known to have been together at the time of a storm have been found miles apart afterward.

3. Selectiveness. A common occurrence is that a house will be demolished without disturbing the lighter objects within it. In the tornado that wrecked the Empire Builder, a farmer watching it from the doorway of his barn was left unharmed when the tornado carried off the barn. A less fortunate victim was the man who was carried away with his house, walked out the front door to investigate the commotion and fell thirty feet to the ground. In the Woodward tornado the walls and roof of a lumber mill were carried off, but the lumber was all left behind- neatly stacked.

4. Carrying. Objects are carried for great distances and set down or dropped. Mail and papers from Woodward were found in Kansas. A twister which skipped through Fort Smith, Arkansas, carried a child for three miles, and let her down, scratched, but not otherwise injured.

During a wild April storm in 1934, a wind gust of 231 miles per hour (372 kilometers per hour) pushed across the summit of Mount Washington. This wind speed still stands as the all-time surface wind speed record.

To bring a little variety a few words about the various weather elements may not go amiss.

Wind is all about pressure. Wind develops because of differences in pressure. Pressure differences develop because of differences in temperature (due to the shape of the earth and because water heats slower than land). When air is getting warmer it expands, when it cools down it shrinks again.

Wind moves from areas with high pressure to areas with low pressure, in order to balance the differences in pressure.

What have we done to deserve this?

Cold and foggy for the thousands taking part in our Anzac dawn parades.

We had company today on our hill walk. Our elder daughter Beverly kindly joined us which added a little spice to our journey. About half way through our trek we came upon the Opportunity Shop next door to a local church. Pam informed me that Beverly being a fan of opportunity shops insisted that she must have a look.

After browsing through a large pile of records Beverly found one to her liking, one with all the hits of Neil Diamond. She parted with $1 and we continued on our way.

We enjoyed a much warmer morning today with 12C in the early hours and rising to 23C during the day.Indoors the temperature is still 20C at 11pm with no heating turned on. Autumn has returned after the cooler nights.

Related to weathercheck I got a big fright about lunch time today. I was as usual making a nuisance of myself in the kichen while lunch was being prepared. Without warning "BANG". A gale had more or less come from nowhere and had slammmed the twin kitchen windows shut right beside me. Luckily, the windows were not open very far and no damage was done other than to my nerves.

An earlier weather report forecast the possiblity of snow in the moutain region south of here. Unfortunately our local weather conditions changed from the warm north to the cold south and the difference became very apparent from early last evening.

Today(Thursday) was very good weatherwise. We took our hilly walk mid- morning and we knew by the time that we arrived back home that the humidity was quite high - the kind of conditions when I sweat profusely while my lady glows slightly - lol.

Wednesday 16 April 2008. Something quite different today. We awoke to a thick blanket of fog which was the natural outcome of the recent warm humid weather from the tropics, being met by much cooler conditions from the south.

Fogs used to be very common here, but since most of the peat land has now been built on, fogs only occur once in a while - thank goodness.

The temperature at 7 o'clock this morning was 14.9C, indicating that we are well into autumn and winter may be just around the corner.

A very warm welcome to Miza-T who has recently joined 'weathercheck'. We are very pleased that you have joined our group and we all look forward to your posts and your comments.

Great news from here - our drought may be breaking.

We had rain during the night and it set in again this morning. Now 9am. and though the rain is easing, more is yet to come, as the sky is heavily overcast and the forecast is for rain, rain, and more rain.

Yes, I know - very poor. what else can be expected when playing around with a newspaper cutting and my recently bought scanner/printer/copier.

However, one cannot be everywhere with a digital camera.

Lyndlj - OK I am going to take the Crow/Raven,simply because I decided to do some extra research into these fascinating birds.
What did I discover well a lot of controversy apparently!I have based most of my postings on my own observations of these birds over the past ten years or so and the little information I have been able to glean about them from some sites that have little snippets of information.
It is thought that the American Crow is smaller than the Raven,so maybe I was mistaken in thinking that may be one,but,on the other hand others have them the same size??
What I did discover is that these are one of the poorest observed birds, only over the past few years have people tried to observe them in any kind of reasonable and informative fashion ( in this country that is) There are a couple of people that have been observing them for a number of years but their findings are contradictory!
It seems the Crow/Raven is difficult to observe,perhaps this is because they are classed as the brainiest of all birds,gifted with a sense of humour and a wicked streak,it is actually possible to teach Crow/Ravens to talk! and the Raven has multiple call sounds!Very mischievious birds and widely misunderstood because of it.
They do feature in folklore for centuries back and have been worshipped by many and varied cultures.
The only thing I learned for sure is that I should write my own observations of Crows down for others to read,as the experts cant seem to agree on them!!

Isadora101 - My husband is the gardener and chief bird feeder in our household. We have quite a nice back garden with mature trees and shrubs surrounding a medium sized lawn. In the centre of the lawn there used to be an old apple tree which became diseased and far too large for the garden.
I was quite upset when he felled it but to placate me he built a bird table from an old wrought iron table base and put a nesting box on the top. It looks good there in the centre of the lawn especially now as a couple of blue tits nest there every spring and we can watch them from the dining room window flitting back and forth.

Skip - SPARROWS. Hoped to find that my house sparrows were first to be seen in the morning but at 6am only 3 starlings, flat out feeding on grass grubs......Sparrows are very smart! A big mynah was busy trying to eat a raisin from a slice of raisin loaf - he dropped the raisin once too often on the lawn - in swooped one of my tiny smart sparrows, picked up the raisin and up and away! The amazed mynah is probably still suffering from shock!

Click on the photo for a better view - maybe - lol.

Our Morning Sky.