Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

Weather By The Moon
lion killed.
Every 20 years(about a Moon cycle), New Zealand
experiences an ‘extreme norwester’. The most famous was
in the first week of August, 1975, a week when the New
Moon and Perigee happened on the same day(7th). Winds
reached 170kmh and caused destruction ranging across 800
miles.
One particular weather-related disaster stands out in
the minds of the New Zealanders, because it happened
within memory and because of the large cost of human life.
THE WAHINE DISASTER
It was 10th April 1968.
The meteorological service
knew there was a severe
tropical depression with
central pressure of below
975 millibars, centred 60
miles east of North Cape and
moving sou-southeast at 20
knots. It was predicted to hit
the Wellington area the next
day, strong northerlies changing to southerlies, increasing
to gale or storm force by morning.
The tropical depression or cyclone had already been
battering the north of the North Island, as storm warnings
that had been out for a week after causing havoc in the Coral
Sea, close to the Solomons, 2000 miles to the northwest,
now moved down to NZ on a northeasterly gale. It.was 3
days prior to a combined Full Moon and Perigee. Swollen
streams burst their banks and landslides blocked highways.
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