Winds in excesss of Force 12 hit Auckland on Tuesday
by Sail-World.com/nz 11 Apr 2018 06:03 PDT
12 April 2018
Lightning strikes the Auckland Skytower ahead of the Force 12 winds which struck the western coast of the province later that night © North Shore Weather
In all the years of watching Auckland weather few can recall seeing winds of the strength which hit Auckland on Tuesday night.
While sometimes high readings are seen, often these are due to mis-reads on the recording devices, but the readings were confirmed on Wednesday.
At the peak of the fast hitting storm last night winds were confirmed on Wednesday to have reached a gust of 115kts at Manukau Heads.
Soon afterwards a gust of just under 70kts was recorded at Bean Rock, with the breeze averaging a very respectable 52kts. The wind in the Waitemata built to a similar strength soon after the first incident before easing back as the wind swung.
For those unfamiliar with the Beaufort Scale - the upper strength - Force 12 is equated to 64kts.
The Predictwind wind maps showed red colour code changing to grey across a wide front just off Manukau Heads and with a small black centre showing on some feeds. The pattern eased as the wind passed over Auckland.