Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Feb 8, 2022 13 tweets 8 min read Read on X
#KiwiDeluge Phase 2 begins.

#ExtremeWeather update thread

Cyclone 92p has now formed north east of New Caledonia and here you can see in the satellite imagery how an atmospheric river generated from its outflows is strengthening and heading towards NZ's West Coast.
Whilst the formation of a Cyclone in this position has been predicted in the models for a long time, its formation is uncertain until it happens, and a critical point in the unfolding story of this #KiwiDeluge.

In this animation you can see the circulation form and its size.
Towards the end of the animation you can also see that it has started to move south eastwards, also as predicted.

This animation shows the broader picture across the tropics, an area on the RHT here (roughly over Tonga) is also playing an important role in this.
This Water Vapour Transport animation from @weathermodels_ shows the next three days and you can see how the second low over Tonga is helping to consolidate the atmospheric moisture generated in the area into a single large stream.
^^ That was a partial plot to make it easier to follow here is the MLSP (isobars) animation from the latest GFS3 model this evening, you can see how the low over Tonga is effectively dragged into the cyclone which moves south and weakens rapidly over the Tasman Sea.
The PWAT (atmospheric water - which is a correlate for engergy) forecast is IMO the most helpful to understand at a glance what is going on. Cyclone #Dovi (not yet officially named) is a cyclone embedded in a massive area of moisture. It is not normal, discrete, cyclone.
Unfortunately for meteorologists - and us their customers, the complexity of having a cyclone embedded in the middle of large area of convective storms means that this event will be very hard to forecast.
These are the latest GEFS (US) and EPS (Euro) ensemble "Spaghetti" forecasts for #Invest92P/#Dovi.

Compared to earlier simulation runs these ones show this storm at greater intensity, especially over the next few days. The two models do however seem to be in broad agreement.
And the new consensus is that the storm will move slower than previously expected and be stronger. The end of this latest #ExtremeWeather event is now predicted to be around Feb 15th rather than Feb 12th.
The next big reveal will be the assessment by the US Navy's JTWC Joint Typhoon Warning Center metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/jtwc.html

So far they have only issued a statement saying that Cyclone Genesis has occurred with no track or intensity guidance.
The JTWC hasn't declared this to be a cyclone yet, just that they consider it's formation possible. But from the satellite presentation I think a cyclone has formed. This warning says they will update their view on this before 3pm NZT today.
Due to the unpredictability of the path and intensity of cyclones beyond three days its impossible to know what the rain and wind impact of this tropical storm will be over the coming week. But these four latest 180 hour rainfall maps are fairly consistent.
And it is clear that NZ faces a major threat from this #ExtremeWeather event.

/ENDS

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More from @althecat

Nov 23
A wise head here in the media center just made a compelling counter argument to the practicality of the G77 and China walking away from the talks here.

And it’s essentially based in the recognition of rising geo-strategic entropy and the phenomena arising out of a lack any coherent global order. /1
The loud activist refrain here is “no deal is better than a bad deal.” But the question is what will the mean. in another conversation a person involved in finance talks just suggested that it’s looking very unlikely that there will be any agreement here simply because there is no strong leadership here. And in particular minimal representation here of strong G7 leadership. /2
By strong here I mean “financially strong.”

So the most likely outcome here now looks to almost certainly be no agreement on an NCQG and as a result it’s feeling rather gloomy now. /3
Read 14 tweets
Nov 23
It’s a gray day here at #COP29Azerbaijan as the 29th Meeting of Nations to address what is now a #ClimateCrisis enters extra time, day one. THREAD. Image
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Civil Society is preparing for a big day in the COP29 venue till the Closing Plenary is convened most likely fairly late Saturday. Here are letters sent to the largest Developing block of COP Nations G77+ China and several developed world nations last night.

This came after new texts were released on the Core remaining issues in this Climate Summit:

Finance - specifically the NCQG - the draft text contained the first number placed on the table 250 Billion, which is not even an inflation adjusted upgrade on the 100 Billion a year in finance agreed in Copenhagen in 2009.

See: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhage…Image
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The open letters to the developed and developing world from #COP29 Civil Society have been endorsed by a huge number of organisations globally.

And will underpin a day of action today at the COP29 Venue. Image
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Read 7 tweets
Nov 22
Final official day of #COP29Azerbaijan

The city is remarkably like Wellington weather wise swinging from day to day and occasionally lovely on a good day.

But the NCQG negotiations are still pretty much deadlocked on the most important issue here, Finance, with no numbers on the table yet. And talks still stuck on many of the same issues they were stuck on at the beginning.Image
I had an opportunity to speak the Egyptian Ambassador as I was leaving who is in a “Pair” appointed by the Presidency with the Australian Ambassador takes to try to get an agreement on the NCQG. He was optimistic about a realistic NCQG figure being eventually offered by Developed Nations to Developing Nations. But did not expect this to come until the very end.

And Negotiations will therefore continue today. This video was at the venue last night - Birds seem to have a commute past the venue to where they sleep.
Developed Nations want some nations that have developed since the process begun, Annex 2 Nations, to be part of the contributor base. The two most prominent of these China and Saudi Arabia say they are already contributing voluntarily and apparently not keen to be brought into the official NCQG base - and this remains an obstacle.

The Ambassador did not think their position on this will change.
Read 7 tweets
Nov 19
ROD ORAM In Memoriam. A Photo Thread.

As some followers in NZ may be aware I am currently at #COP29 in Baku Azerbaijan. My fourth COP. And this is a relatively difficult one. Rod Oram died tragically in a cycling accident in March 2024 when I was back in NZ for my first visit since leaving NZ to spread my wings in 2015.

I caught up with him in Glasgow back in 2021 in the time of Covid.

But I have known him for a lot longer as you will see in the photos in this thread. The oldest pictures I have are from him at the Egypt hosted COP in 2022. My second COP.Image
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His successor in climate coverage @NewsroomNZ's @marcdaalder is attending his first COP this year which got me thinking about NZ's COP UNCCC coverage trailblazer for in person COP coverage.
There is a great spirit of camaraderie among the large COP media pool. In Glasgow he helped me orient myself, which is not an effortless process as the COP process is so big and varied and seemingly endless. But the attendees and guardians from the UNFCCC are all great people too.

Here at #COP29 at the end of 2024 the brilliant Marc Daalder is now filling Rod's shoes as in person COP correspondent. Whilst there are a fair few other Kiwis here we are the only Kiwi Journos here that I know of.

As I had never met him I was quite surprised when Cindy Baxter turned up to meet him and it turned out he was sitting one row away from me.Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 18
COP29 Erasure – COP29 Media Center Crippled scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2411…
The official video record of COP29 is being erased every 12 hours & nobody here knows
The Media Center for UNFCCC COP meetings was transformed in 2021 in Glasgow during the UK Presidency of the COP. The new high tech set up has cameras in all official meeting places recording the events in full. The content from this system is then made available to media in the MEDIA Center via the IBC (Interational Broadcast Center) platform.
The center also has desks for several hundred journalists to work during the COP.
The first signs came on Thursday day four (14 November 2024) of COP29 last week during the first week of the COP. Ordinarily reporters attending COPs can request access to get files downloaded through a media desk. This can be useful to extract quotes or report on events that we are unable to attend due to timetable clashes etc.
Read 10 tweets
Nov 12
The wrong headed and frankly selfish approach of NZME and STUFF on the issue of the "Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill" [see: mch.govt.nz/our-work/broad…] is deeply problematic for independent and digital native publishing companies such as @Scoop.

Part 1 of my thoughts on the subject can be found here.

"Google's Support For Democracy And Media In NZ" scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2411…
Other medium sized digital native publications including @NewsroomNZ and @TheSpinoffTV are in a similar position to us - as well as a large group of smaller independent digital and print publications across New Zealand.
.@Google has made it very clear to the Government that it will withdraw its support for NZ media companies should this Bill pass. It considers the proposal to be a link tax and that the precedent that this would create for how the internet works globally is something that it cannot accept. As this is a global policy issue it will not back down on this.
Read 11 tweets

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