A huge collective sigh of relief rang out across the South yesterday as the blustery winds finally dropped, for while southerners are accustomed to the occasional storm, be it bearing high winds, heavy snow or torrential rain, two damaging severe gales in three days is something next level, really driving home our vulnerability to extreme weather.
On Monday, ferocious gusts toppled trees, blew down small buildings, peeled roofs, tipped over trucks and cut power throughout much of the lower South Island.
But it turned out to be only a dress rehearsal for Thursday’s dreadful storm, which has caused devastation in communities throughout the island.
Such a double-banger raises fears of how the changing climate might make such a concatenation of appalling conditions more likely in future.
That is not to say with certainty that this week’s weather was caused by climate change. There are other climate drivers at play, including the probable influence of the sudden stratospheric warming above the Antarctic, which has unleashed Southern Ocean storms far further north than usual.
You can bet your bottom dollar, however, climate change’s malign influence will have been involved in this somehow. Scientists may well carry out attribution studies to see just how much more likely to happen, and more intense, these storms were because of the warming atmosphere.
The destruction around Invercargill and other parts of Southland, and across a swathe of North Canterbury, is hard to believe. Coastal South Otago, and Dunedin, are not much better off. Leaves, twigs, branches, trees, whole windbreaks, broken power pylons lie smashed and higgledy-piggledy across the countryside, blocking roads and access to homes.
In Dunedin, a fearsome squall slammed into the city a little after 1.30pm, ripping up trees, lifting roofs and blowing over heavy shipping containers as if they were Lego. The same wild southwesterly front had belted into Invercargill a few hours earlier, about the same time that MetService upgraded its severe-gale warnings from orange to the top-tier red.
While the damage is hard to comprehend, we can consider ourselves extremely fortunate nobody was killed in such conditions.
The repercussions of the storm go far beyond the worst-hit places. Even those South Island areas not directly affected by storm-force winds have had to contend with flooding, high rivers, wildfires, lightning strikes and extensive power blackouts.
There was good warning of the severe weather, even if the specifics of where the worst happened were beyond the ability of forecasters and computers to pinpoint. Those lucky enough to avoid the strongest winds should count their blessings and look at how bad things were elsewhere before thinking forecasters got it wrong and it was a ‘‘fizzer’’.
Let us hope those badly affected can get on their feet again quickly, that electricity supplies can be reconnected, and that Thursday’s storm marks the end of a particularly angry and nasty spring.
Marched them down again
What a disgrace Prince Andrew is.
Like the Grand Old Duke of York - which he used to be until he disclaimed the title last week - he has marched the Royal Family down, into a pool of public embarrassment and levels of contempt not seen since some of the cringeworthy tabloid coverage of awkward family breakups decades ago.
The latest news is that police are looking into allegations that he sought help from one of his personal protection officers to discredit Virginia Giuffre, who he claims never to have met, despite settling a civil case with her involving a £12 million payout.
The posthumous account by Giuffre of being sex-trafficked by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein claims she had three sexual encounters with the prince, the first when she was 17.
The prince has clearly not told the truth about his involvement with her and Epstein, and has been able to shield himself from legal efforts to bring him to justice. That may not last much longer.
While there are concerns he is wrecking the Royals’ standing, surely they must have known about his misbehaviour for years?
