NZ Historic Weather Events Catalogue
December 1938 South Island Storm ( 1938-12-02 )
A storm hit South Island resulting in heavy rain and flooding. Tornados hit the West Coast and Canterbury .
South Island
Multi Hazard
at
South Island
Duration: 3 days - From the 2nd to the 4th of December.
West Coast
Heavy Rain
at
West Coast
There was heavy rain on the night of the 2nd. The weather cleared on the morning of the 3rd.
The highway between Karamea and Westport was blocked through flooding at Konini Creek.
County roads were flooded in some places, but not seriously.
Landslide
The rain brought down five slips on the coastal road between Westport and Greymouth. Traffic was dislocated between towns for the weekend.
Heavy Rain
at
Karamea
There was a big downpour at Karamea but no damage was reported.
Multi Hazard
at
Westport
Westport experienced a terrific electrical storm on the afternoon of the 3rd. Heavy rain and hail showers were accompanying loud thunder and bright lightning.
Lightning
Thunder could still be heard in the distance on the 4th.
Tornado
A fierce whirlwind whipped up two sheets of roofing iron from the dwelling on the main road and carried them up Millerton hill on the 3rd.
The whirlwind was about the width of two houses and people heard it come in from the sea.
Heavy Rain
Rain fell in torrents on the 3rd.
Heavy Rain
at
Buller District
The downpour in the Buller District caused some damage to vegetable gardens and fruit trees.
Canterbury
Multi Hazard
at
Canterbury
The northern districts of Canterbury had general rain on the 4th, with cold tempertures and snow in the high country.
Heavy Rain
The heavy downpour on the peninsula was accompanied by a strong south-westerly wind.
Torrential rain fell on and around the foothills of South Canterbury on the 3rd.
In central districts, rain fell on the afternoon of the 4th.
Flooding
The storm caused serious damage.
Farmer suffered heavy losses.
Crops were scoured out.
One house was flooded to a depth of one foot (0.31 m) and other houses were surrounded.
Main South Road was impassable due to flood waters.
Creeks were in high flood.
Flooding occurred on low-lying land.
Rivers were rising steadily on the night of the 4th, but they were not causing concern.
Snow / Ice
Snow fell on the foothills in Methven, Oxford and Hanmer and there were very cold temperatures.
Flooding
at
Rakaia River
Rakaia River was in moderate flood, and the peak discharge was 27,00 cusecs (766 cumecs) at automatic recorder.
Heavy Rain
at
Temuka
No rain fell in the Temuka district until early evening on the 3rd.
Heavy Rain
at
Saint Andrews
St Andrews recorded 1.00 in (2.54 cm) of rain in 30 minutes.
There was a cloudburst at St Andrews.
Tornado
at
Ashburton
On the afternoon of the 3rd, an unusually severe whirlwind passed over the town from north to south.
There was serious but not extensive damage to buildings.
A girl was riding a bike in Mona Square and was thrown to the road but not injured.
The path of the whirlwind was across top of the burnt-out Majestic Theatre, near which two sheets of iron were lifted hundreds of feet into the air.
A section of the wooden fence in Mills Street was blown down. An iron lean-to was lifted from a coalyard in the Triangle and tossed over a fence. A door was wrenched from its hinges and a lead-light carried off top of a shop in the same locality.
It continued directly across the business area of town. The whirlwind carried loose cement plaster from the top of a building in Burnett Street and careered over the Arcade, where the worst damage was done.
At the Arcade, it carried a large plateglass window into an empty shop, tore its way through the roof and lifting off several sheets of iron, some of which were hurled into the yard below. Another shop window in the Arcade was also blown in.
A large lean-to shelter at back of a building in Tancred Street was struck as though an explosion had occurred and stripped of its roof. One large section, containing 16 sheets with supports attached, was hurled into air over the top of the building.
Several sheets of iron were also torn off the main building and blown across the roof and others were folded back.
After the whirlwind reached Ashburton River, it headed in an easterly direction towards the coast.
Flooding
at
Timaru
Rivers were discoloured and swollen late on the afternoon of the 3rd.
Serious flooding occurred in many places.
By 10am on the 4th, the first showers fell of a storm which was to set in for the day.
The downpour on the Pareora watershed caused extensive damage to a water-race leading to the reservoir from which Timaru gets its water supply. The position of the borough water supply was serious.
Heavy Rain
at
Sutherlands district
There was a cloudburst in the Sutherlands district.
Flooding
Farmers incurred heavy losses.
A farmer, at a creek bed which is usually dry, saw a wall of water 8 ft (2.44 m) high pushing a mass of native trees and other debris down a gully.
The flood remained at its peak for an hour.
The greatest damage was done by the fringe of the cloudburst, which badly scoured out many acres of the worked land.
Water undermined the railway to Fairlie and the train was delayed for five and a half hours.
Landslide
Many slips occurred.
Heavy Rain
at
Oxford
Oxford recorded approximately 2 in (5.08 cm) of rain on the afternoon of the 4th.
Heavy Rain
at
Geraldine
Torrential rain fell in Geraldine on the 4th for approximately two hours, beginning at 11:45am.
Heavy Rain
at
Waitui
Waitui recorded 131 points (4.62 cm) in two hours from 11:45am on the 4th.
Otago
Multi Hazard
at
Otago
A southerly storm was experienced throughout North Otago. Heavy rain was accompanied by a strong, south-easterly wind which started late on the night of the 2nd. There was a lull of a few hours on the morning of the 3rd, but then again set in for the afternoon and evening.
Heavy Rain
at
Dunedin
Otago Daily Times Building in Dunedin recorded 4.04 in (10.26 cm) of rain in 19.5 hours from 4.30pm on the 3rd.
Otago Daily Times Building in Dunedin recorded 1.4 in (3.56 cm) of rain in 3.5 hours from 4.30pm to 8pm on the 3rd.
It was the worst storm of its kind that had occurred in Dunedin for many years. It was the heaviest fall of rain recorded in Dunedin since March 1929.
The rain, which was mostly extremely heavy, fell continuously for about 20 hours. It began at approximately 4:30pm on the 3rd, and fell without a break until noon on the 4th.
Flooding
Ordinary stormwater drainage in most parts of the city was inadequate to cope with the amount of water and steep streets were soon carrrying rushing streams.
Great spouts of water gushed through pavements.
At the Glen, water entered several houses.
The first flooding soon subsided to a certain extent.
Heavy and unceasing rain through the night brought on a major crisis in which houses in the flat area and other parts of city had to be hurriedly evacuated.
By 2am the water was waist deep at one property. In one case, a family was rescued just as water was lapping at the matresses of their beds.
Extensive damage done to property as well as to streets and roads.
A stormwater drain in Wilkie Road burst and caused the most serious flooding, inundating the whole of area around Kensington.
Early in the morning it was impossible for cars to go through Bridgeman, Grosvenor and Wain Streets. They all had about 3 ft (0.91 m) of water lying in them until morning.
Kensington School and houses in Grosvenor and Wain Streets were flooded,. The school was not reopened until the 8th.
In Wain St, even towards midday on the 4th, water was still well above floor level of some houses.
Most of the streets connecting Cargill Road and Macandrew Road were like rivers.
In Loyalty, Richmond, Nelson and Helena Streets, water was up to the doorsteps of most houses and some were flooded.
Water entered a number of shops at the shopping centre of South Dunedin.
A small stream which comes down the hill beside Cliff's Road at St. Clair became a swollen torrent on the ngiht of the 3rd. The high-water mark left by debris indicated that at one stage the stream must have been not much less than 10 ft (3.05 m) deep.
Some telephone services were interrupted on the 4th due to water entering underground cables at Opoho and South Dunedin.
There was some water on the Main South Road on the 4th, but it was never completely blocked.
Kaikorai Stream covered Brighton Road to depth making it impassable.
On the night of the 3rd, the force of water flowing down Glen Road was likened to a swiftly flowing river. It scoured out the road, depositing tons of rock, gravel and other debris over the Main South Road.
The water-mark in one house was nearly 4 ft (1.22 m) and practically everything in the house was ruined.
Landslide
There was a large slip on hill above Ravensbourne. Numerous streams washed a huge quantity of the material down to the houses on on the road from Dunedin to Port Chalmers.
Two houses were left in a precarious position as the banks in front of them had fallen away. Two other houses were devastated. One served as a dam, resulting in soft, sticky clay covering the backyard almost to the level of the windows.
In places, washouts endangered the lower side of the road and at least one slip covered the railway line between Burkes and Maia.
The north railway line had several small slips. One on the south side of Sawyers Bay tunnel and four or five more between Sawyers Bay and Purakanui. One train was cancelled.
The road between Portobello and Cape Saunders was impassable on the night of the 4th due to slips of considerable size.
Slips occurred on Mount Cargill and the Kilmog, but didn't cut off communication.
Flooding
at
Waitahuna
At Waitahuna, the road was covered with water to a depth of several feet.
Flooding
at
West Taieri
Flooding at West Taieri Bridge, prevented access to Middlemarch Road by way of Outram.
Heavy Rain
at
Ross Creek Reservior
Ross Creek Reservoir recorded 4.94 in (12.55 cm) of rain.
Heavy Rain
at
Sullivans Dam
Sullivan's Dam recorded 4.81 in (12.22 cm) of rain.
Flooding
at
Otago Peninsula
Carisbrook Cricket Ground was completely covered by two to three feet (0.61-0.91 m) of water on the 4th.
Landslide
On the Otago Peninsula, between Waverley and Macandrew Bay, a house was completely destroyed by a wall of silt 8 ft (2.44 m) high moving down the hillside.
At St. Clair, roads were blocked by slips and considerable minor flooding took place.
Lower Otago Peninsula Road was blocked to traffic for several hours on the 4th due to slips.
Big boulders slipped from banks and hillsides.
Flooding
at
Taieri Plain
Blocked culverts caused a number of streams of water to flow across the road.
Several small streams on the Taieri Plain were flooded.
A number of roads were made impassable by water, but the damage was not extensive.
Taieri River was high but remained within bounds.
Heavy Rain
at
Oamaru
Oamaru recorded 111 points (3.92 cm) of rain in 24 hours to 9am on the 4th.
Oamaru recorded 64 points (2.26 cm) of rain on the evening of the 2nd to the morning of the 3rd.
Oamaru recorded 1.75 in (4.45 cm) of rain in 48 hours from the 2nd to the 4th.
Flooding
In town itself the flooding was restricted to surface water on streets in lower areas. There was one section just above Chelmer Street Bridge, where the water coming off the surrounding hills swept across the road to a depth of several inches.
Water had backed up at the bridge and flooded over the bank of Oamaru Creek.
Oamaru Creek was swollen, but not as high as after the last heavy rain early in September.
Multi Hazard
There were heavy seas in the harbour. Waves were breaking over the breakwater, driven by strong winds.
References
- Cowie, C.A.: Attwood, A.K. (1957) Floods in New Zealand 1920-53, The Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council, Wellington, New Zealand, p.239.
- Headline: Early Morning Escape.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Five Slips on Road.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Flood Damage.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Heavy Rain at Oamaru.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Rain in South Canterbury.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Roofing Iron in Air.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Serious Floods Occur.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Severe Storm.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Snow on High Country.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Whirlwind at Ashburton.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
December 1938 South Island Storm ( 1938-12-02 )
A storm hit South Island resulting in heavy rain and flooding. Tornados hit the West Coast and Canterbury .
South Island
Multi Hazard
at
South Island
Duration: 3 days - From the 2nd to the 4th of December.
West Coast
Heavy Rain
at
West Coast
There was heavy rain on the night of the 2nd. The weather cleared on the morning of the 3rd.
The highway between Karamea and Westport was blocked through flooding at Konini Creek.
County roads were flooded in some places, but not seriously.
Landslide
The rain brought down five slips on the coastal road between Westport and Greymouth. Traffic was dislocated between towns for the weekend.
Heavy Rain
at
Karamea
There was a big downpour at Karamea but no damage was reported.
Multi Hazard
at
Westport
Westport experienced a terrific electrical storm on the afternoon of the 3rd. Heavy rain and hail showers were accompanying loud thunder and bright lightning.
Lightning
Thunder could still be heard in the distance on the 4th.
Tornado
A fierce whirlwind whipped up two sheets of roofing iron from the dwelling on the main road and carried them up Millerton hill on the 3rd.
The whirlwind was about the width of two houses and people heard it come in from the sea.
Heavy Rain
Rain fell in torrents on the 3rd.
Heavy Rain
at
Buller District
The downpour in the Buller District caused some damage to vegetable gardens and fruit trees.
Canterbury
Multi Hazard
at
Canterbury
The northern districts of Canterbury had general rain on the 4th, with cold tempertures and snow in the high country.
Heavy Rain
The heavy downpour on the peninsula was accompanied by a strong south-westerly wind.
Torrential rain fell on and around the foothills of South Canterbury on the 3rd.
In central districts, rain fell on the afternoon of the 4th.
Flooding
The storm caused serious damage.
Farmer suffered heavy losses.
Crops were scoured out.
One house was flooded to a depth of one foot (0.31 m) and other houses were surrounded.
Main South Road was impassable due to flood waters.
Creeks were in high flood.
Flooding occurred on low-lying land.
Rivers were rising steadily on the night of the 4th, but they were not causing concern.
Snow / Ice
Snow fell on the foothills in Methven, Oxford and Hanmer and there were very cold temperatures.
Flooding
at
Rakaia River
Rakaia River was in moderate flood, and the peak discharge was 27,00 cusecs (766 cumecs) at automatic recorder.
Heavy Rain
at
Temuka
No rain fell in the Temuka district until early evening on the 3rd.
Heavy Rain
at
Saint Andrews
St Andrews recorded 1.00 in (2.54 cm) of rain in 30 minutes.
There was a cloudburst at St Andrews.
Tornado
at
Ashburton
On the afternoon of the 3rd, an unusually severe whirlwind passed over the town from north to south.
There was serious but not extensive damage to buildings.
A girl was riding a bike in Mona Square and was thrown to the road but not injured.
The path of the whirlwind was across top of the burnt-out Majestic Theatre, near which two sheets of iron were lifted hundreds of feet into the air.
A section of the wooden fence in Mills Street was blown down. An iron lean-to was lifted from a coalyard in the Triangle and tossed over a fence. A door was wrenched from its hinges and a lead-light carried off top of a shop in the same locality.
It continued directly across the business area of town. The whirlwind carried loose cement plaster from the top of a building in Burnett Street and careered over the Arcade, where the worst damage was done.
At the Arcade, it carried a large plateglass window into an empty shop, tore its way through the roof and lifting off several sheets of iron, some of which were hurled into the yard below. Another shop window in the Arcade was also blown in.
A large lean-to shelter at back of a building in Tancred Street was struck as though an explosion had occurred and stripped of its roof. One large section, containing 16 sheets with supports attached, was hurled into air over the top of the building.
Several sheets of iron were also torn off the main building and blown across the roof and others were folded back.
After the whirlwind reached Ashburton River, it headed in an easterly direction towards the coast.
Flooding
at
Timaru
Rivers were discoloured and swollen late on the afternoon of the 3rd.
Serious flooding occurred in many places.
By 10am on the 4th, the first showers fell of a storm which was to set in for the day.
The downpour on the Pareora watershed caused extensive damage to a water-race leading to the reservoir from which Timaru gets its water supply. The position of the borough water supply was serious.
Heavy Rain
at
Sutherlands district
There was a cloudburst in the Sutherlands district.
Flooding
Farmers incurred heavy losses.
A farmer, at a creek bed which is usually dry, saw a wall of water 8 ft (2.44 m) high pushing a mass of native trees and other debris down a gully.
The flood remained at its peak for an hour.
The greatest damage was done by the fringe of the cloudburst, which badly scoured out many acres of the worked land.
Water undermined the railway to Fairlie and the train was delayed for five and a half hours.
Landslide
Many slips occurred.
Heavy Rain
at
Oxford
Oxford recorded approximately 2 in (5.08 cm) of rain on the afternoon of the 4th.
Heavy Rain
at
Geraldine
Torrential rain fell in Geraldine on the 4th for approximately two hours, beginning at 11:45am.
Heavy Rain
at
Waitui
Waitui recorded 131 points (4.62 cm) in two hours from 11:45am on the 4th.
Otago
Multi Hazard
at
Otago
A southerly storm was experienced throughout North Otago. Heavy rain was accompanied by a strong, south-easterly wind which started late on the night of the 2nd. There was a lull of a few hours on the morning of the 3rd, but then again set in for the afternoon and evening.
Heavy Rain
at
Dunedin
Otago Daily Times Building in Dunedin recorded 4.04 in (10.26 cm) of rain in 19.5 hours from 4.30pm on the 3rd.
Otago Daily Times Building in Dunedin recorded 1.4 in (3.56 cm) of rain in 3.5 hours from 4.30pm to 8pm on the 3rd.
It was the worst storm of its kind that had occurred in Dunedin for many years. It was the heaviest fall of rain recorded in Dunedin since March 1929.
The rain, which was mostly extremely heavy, fell continuously for about 20 hours. It began at approximately 4:30pm on the 3rd, and fell without a break until noon on the 4th.
Flooding
Ordinary stormwater drainage in most parts of the city was inadequate to cope with the amount of water and steep streets were soon carrrying rushing streams.
Great spouts of water gushed through pavements.
At the Glen, water entered several houses.
The first flooding soon subsided to a certain extent.
Heavy and unceasing rain through the night brought on a major crisis in which houses in the flat area and other parts of city had to be hurriedly evacuated.
By 2am the water was waist deep at one property. In one case, a family was rescued just as water was lapping at the matresses of their beds.
Extensive damage done to property as well as to streets and roads.
A stormwater drain in Wilkie Road burst and caused the most serious flooding, inundating the whole of area around Kensington.
Early in the morning it was impossible for cars to go through Bridgeman, Grosvenor and Wain Streets. They all had about 3 ft (0.91 m) of water lying in them until morning.
Kensington School and houses in Grosvenor and Wain Streets were flooded,. The school was not reopened until the 8th.
In Wain St, even towards midday on the 4th, water was still well above floor level of some houses.
Most of the streets connecting Cargill Road and Macandrew Road were like rivers.
In Loyalty, Richmond, Nelson and Helena Streets, water was up to the doorsteps of most houses and some were flooded.
Water entered a number of shops at the shopping centre of South Dunedin.
A small stream which comes down the hill beside Cliff's Road at St. Clair became a swollen torrent on the ngiht of the 3rd. The high-water mark left by debris indicated that at one stage the stream must have been not much less than 10 ft (3.05 m) deep.
Some telephone services were interrupted on the 4th due to water entering underground cables at Opoho and South Dunedin.
There was some water on the Main South Road on the 4th, but it was never completely blocked.
Kaikorai Stream covered Brighton Road to depth making it impassable.
On the night of the 3rd, the force of water flowing down Glen Road was likened to a swiftly flowing river. It scoured out the road, depositing tons of rock, gravel and other debris over the Main South Road.
The water-mark in one house was nearly 4 ft (1.22 m) and practically everything in the house was ruined.
Landslide
There was a large slip on hill above Ravensbourne. Numerous streams washed a huge quantity of the material down to the houses on on the road from Dunedin to Port Chalmers.
Two houses were left in a precarious position as the banks in front of them had fallen away. Two other houses were devastated. One served as a dam, resulting in soft, sticky clay covering the backyard almost to the level of the windows.
In places, washouts endangered the lower side of the road and at least one slip covered the railway line between Burkes and Maia.
The north railway line had several small slips. One on the south side of Sawyers Bay tunnel and four or five more between Sawyers Bay and Purakanui. One train was cancelled.
The road between Portobello and Cape Saunders was impassable on the night of the 4th due to slips of considerable size.
Slips occurred on Mount Cargill and the Kilmog, but didn't cut off communication.
Flooding
at
Waitahuna
At Waitahuna, the road was covered with water to a depth of several feet.
Flooding
at
West Taieri
Flooding at West Taieri Bridge, prevented access to Middlemarch Road by way of Outram.
Heavy Rain
at
Ross Creek Reservior
Ross Creek Reservoir recorded 4.94 in (12.55 cm) of rain.
Heavy Rain
at
Sullivans Dam
Sullivan's Dam recorded 4.81 in (12.22 cm) of rain.
Flooding
at
Otago Peninsula
Carisbrook Cricket Ground was completely covered by two to three feet (0.61-0.91 m) of water on the 4th.
Landslide
On the Otago Peninsula, between Waverley and Macandrew Bay, a house was completely destroyed by a wall of silt 8 ft (2.44 m) high moving down the hillside.
At St. Clair, roads were blocked by slips and considerable minor flooding took place.
Lower Otago Peninsula Road was blocked to traffic for several hours on the 4th due to slips.
Big boulders slipped from banks and hillsides.
Flooding
at
Taieri Plain
Blocked culverts caused a number of streams of water to flow across the road.
Several small streams on the Taieri Plain were flooded.
A number of roads were made impassable by water, but the damage was not extensive.
Taieri River was high but remained within bounds.
Heavy Rain
at
Oamaru
Oamaru recorded 111 points (3.92 cm) of rain in 24 hours to 9am on the 4th.
Oamaru recorded 64 points (2.26 cm) of rain on the evening of the 2nd to the morning of the 3rd.
Oamaru recorded 1.75 in (4.45 cm) of rain in 48 hours from the 2nd to the 4th.
Flooding
In town itself the flooding was restricted to surface water on streets in lower areas. There was one section just above Chelmer Street Bridge, where the water coming off the surrounding hills swept across the road to a depth of several inches.
Water had backed up at the bridge and flooded over the bank of Oamaru Creek.
Oamaru Creek was swollen, but not as high as after the last heavy rain early in September.
Multi Hazard
There were heavy seas in the harbour. Waves were breaking over the breakwater, driven by strong winds.
References
- Cowie, C.A.: Attwood, A.K. (1957) Floods in New Zealand 1920-53, The Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council, Wellington, New Zealand, p.239.
- Headline: Early Morning Escape.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Five Slips on Road.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Flood Damage.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Heavy Rain at Oamaru.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Rain in South Canterbury.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Roofing Iron in Air.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Serious Floods Occur.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Severe Storm.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Snow on High Country.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.
- Headline: Whirlwind at Ashburton.
- The Press, 5 December 1938.