Thursday

Unfortunately the NOAA site is down this morning therefore I can't get a handle on stability and likely cloud bases. I'll try it again in a while...interestingly it was down last week as well, that's the first time I've struck problems accessing the data. So what else do we know? The rubbishy front went throuh last night so we would have to expect more unstable air behind the front, therefore reasonable thermal development. The general air flow (winds) is S to SW. It's currently (7.30am) 5-8 knots SSW at the Mount and a bit lighter further inland. I'm picking 5000ft bases with sea breezes starting up by mid-morning. Dew point is round 4-5 degrees and expected highs are 18-20 degrees so the old rough rule of thumb...400ft x the diff between temp and dew point (14) = 5600ft. Should be a good day to task to Taupo.