Strong winds pummel south

BARRY HARCOURT/The Southland Times

JUST A DASH ON THE ROCKS: A windswept Foveaux Strait in stormy weather that was rife across the south during the second weekend in March.

Strong winds buffeted the south during the weekend but it hardly ruffled a feather.

MetService recorded winds of almost 110kmh in Invercargill, followed by Stewart Island with 106kmh, Gore with 65kmh, and Nugget Point in the Catlins with an average wind speed of 78kmh.

A PowerNet spokesman said considering the strength of the wind there were few problems on the power network. Falling branches and clashing wires did cause minor faults across Southland and Otago but there were no significant outages or major events, he said.

The Invercargill Fire Service had two callouts to wind-related incidents, including a lifting roof in Humber St about 11.30am and a branch on power lines at Myross Bush about 1.10pm yesterday.

Invercargill police had no wind-related callouts but the rough weather did upset those venturing out in Foveaux Strait.

Stewart Island Flights managing director Raymond Hector said the airline had to put on three extra flights because all ferry sailings from Bluff to Oban were cancelled.

Barnes Oysters manager Graeme Wright said none of the company's oyster boats had been out since Thursday and, looking at the weather forecast, would be lucky to get out before Tuesday.

MetService forecaster Matthew Ford said a large stationary high over the Tasman Sea dragging a strong southwesterly flow up the country was responsible for the high winds.

The winds were predicted to ease this morning, but were forecast to pick up again on Wednesday, Mr Ford said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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