That's The Weather, For Now - a Daniel Corbett fanblog

13th April

1 News at Six
Someone could run out to the rabbit hutch in the back garden and say to the Easter Bunny, ‘it’s OK, come on out.'

The Civilian
TVNZ measuring strength of storm in different locations by how wet and injured their reporters become

1 News meteorologist and ghost of a now-deceased funeral home director Dan Corbett said the arrangement was a great way to keep an eye on the storm’s progress “on the fly.”

“So throughout the night we’ll be updating you as the cyclone tracks down the country,” he explained, pointing at a large map of New Zealand. “This is the country, right here. This is what it looks like. And we’ll be able to show you the different kinds of weather it’s bringing to different locations based on what’s happening to our wonderful men and women on the ground.

“For example, here’s Chris Chang. He’s in Tauranga. He’s very, very wet, and he’s begging for a change of clothes. We’re not going to give him any, of course, so there’s a lot of rain there, as you can see.

“Sam Kelway, on the other hand, he’s in Edgecumbe. Not very wet, but he does have bruises all over his face from where tree branches are hitting him. You’ll see there’s one here, here and here. So not so much rain in Edgecumbe, at least not right now, but the winds have been up.”

Will Hine, who is reporting from Whitianga, has had a request to briefly come inside because he was “cold to his bones” declined by Corbett, who said it would damage the integrity of the experiment.

BBC News

Yay! Dan was (briefly) back on the Beeb! This time to talk about Cyclone Cook.

I always call it a big, mean, ugly windbag.

It's pretty much like Mother Nature saying, 'I'm gonna make a cake,' and she takes all the ingredients mixed together, put some nasty, put some horrible, put some mean, mix it three times and then, boom.

1st September

Welcome to 'That's the Weather for Now' - a Daniel Corbett fanblog.
Came straight to this archive page?
Click here for the latest Dan-isms, pictures and news.

Spring has arrived! But not everyone's pleased with the unseasonably warm weather
The video on this piece by Dan-fan Chris Chang is worth a watch from about 1m 12s in.

With Mother Nature it's always the case, it's never done until, like at the circus, the fat lady sings.

1st March

Hottest February on Record
Some brief glimpses of Dan on the video embedded within this news item. Start watching from around 1m 10s onwards.

The Adam and Eve Show
On Sunday Dan tweeted:

I'm off to Christchurch today to appear on the @adameveshow They have a big challenge ahead of them! Good luck guys! pic.twitter.com/oOofPnCSjD

— Daniel Corbett (@danielcorbetttv) February 28, 2016

Video of their challenge is now on YouTube.

Firstly, what makes a great weather presenter? (TL;DR, it's Dan)

If you only watch one of these three videos, make it this one.

What we do is convey information ... it might be a big storm that's coming or it might be lovely weather for beaches. We take all the information, we look at the weather, we're telling the story - but you want people to remember what you're telling them because so many times people will watch the weather and you get to the end of it and you go [pulls face] 'What's gonna happen tomorrow?' ... and that's why I like to sit there and tell people, 'today's gonna be a great day for the beach, you're gonna go outside, you're gonna have fun.'

For me, the highlight of this video is Dan's forecast in front of the studio audience.
We start off with what I call a plate of spaghetti, all the different fronts.

Thirty degrees, you'll be outside, that nor-wester like Mother Nature's hairdryer blowing away.

This wiggly front like a piece of blue plasticine wiggles about.

It's the applause at the end that makes it for me. Yay for Dan!

Master of the green screen (again, it's Dan)

Finally, the verdict:

24th November

One News at 6

Here's the main forecast: Evening Weather Report: Nov 24
Mother Nature's had her smiling face on here at Scott Base

There was also a report: Surviving and thriving on the windiest place on Earth (and on YouTube, thanks to @ker_fuffle)

21st September

One News at 6pm
Certainly quite a stuck weather pattern across much of the country at the moment. It's a bit like taking your car, you drive it into a muddy paddock, you go up the hill, all of a sudden the wheels start spinning and three days later you're still spinning and not getting your traction.

There's a Vine of that, below.

Seven Sharp

What has ONE Weatherman Dan Corbett got to do with the Emmys? Find out at Seven Sharp.

A photo posted by Seven Sharp (@sevensharptvnz) on Sep 20, 2015 at 8:51pm PDT

Dan made an appearance on Seven Sharp, attempting to predict Emmy winners.

Neighbourhood

Neighbourhood is a show on TVNZ where "your favourite Kiwi celebrities ... host a tour through their home town."

From the Neighbourhood Facebook page:

This week, meteorologist Daniel Corbett is our guide to the diverse community of Warkworth, forty minutes north of Auckland.

Daniel worked for the Met Office and the BBC in the UK for many years. He became part of the One News Weather Team in 2014. Daniel says when he and his wife moved to New Zealand three and a half years ago for a change in lifestyle, he had to learn new forecasting skills because the weather here is very different to the States and the UK. “It's really challenging due to the contrast between the mountains and sea as well as New Zealand’s position situated midway between the tropics and the poles. All these factors help make our weather dramatic and very unique.”

Daniel picked Warkworth as a pace to live because of the proximity to the vineyards, beaches, and marine reserves of the Mahurangi Peninsula, as well as the diverse and welcoming community. “I am really excited about the new life we’re creating in Warkworth. It’s such a contrast to those built up megacities I’ve lived in previously like London or New York.”

Here's the FB trailer, complete with title typo:

Warkowrth, Sunday 14 June, 11am on TV One

Here's just a taste of some of the stories on offer when meteorologist, Daniel Corbett is our guide to Warkworth, this Sunday.

Posted by Neighbourhood on Tuesday, 9 June 2015

However, I've not yet been able to see anything beyond that trailer because OnDemand seems to have stopped working for me, despite tweaking Hola and changing the timezone.

You may have better luck:
Neighbourhood - Series 4, Episode 14, OnDemand

Fingers crossed it appears on YouTube soon. *cough* HINT *cough*

24th March

One News at 6pm
This low will, pmmm, there you go, fizzle.

There's a Vine of that, below, along with a 'pmmm, disappears,' - perhaps Dan channelling echoes of his appearance on Time Trumpet (which was repeated in the UK this Sunday evening just gone)?

23rd March

One News at 6pm
Thursday's calendar in the kitchen, put a smiley [draws circle in air] and say 'rain day.'

Cricket World Cup forecast
From a piece on Seven Sharp about preparations for NZvSA, Dan warns of Cyclone Guptill and hail of fours and sixes. There's video, below.

22nd January

One News at 6

Reporting from Waiheke island near Auckland, Dan got a sneak peak at a sculpture exhibition.

This big high is like a car shifting into park, it doesn't move.

21st January

One News at 6

Today's destination: Christchurch. Dan visited some cricket ground or something. Sorry I can't be more specific than that, my eyes glaze over at the first mention of cricket.

Hopefully Mother Nature comes to the party and gives us some fine weather for the day.

20th January

One News at 6

Today Dan was out and about in Marlborough, meeting firefighters, watching a pod of dolphins, visiting a bird sanctuary and a vineyard.

19th January

One News at 6

Taking the show on the road, Dan reports from Wellington's Birdman day before delivering the forecast.

Celebrating TV One’s New Weatherman

It's a shame that the original article (or the one that probably brought you here, reader) was unnecessarily unkind in places.

So here's the TTWFN version. Edits in capitals, deletions indicated with ellipses.

Sunny With a Chance of GENIUS: Celebrating TV One’s New Weatherman
Alex Casey revels in the highs and lows of Daniel Corbett, the endearing One News weatherman and replacement for Jim Hickey in our hearts.

I have always been told to listen to my parents, so when my Dad urgently let me know that the new TV One weatherman looked like “Dynamo in 30 years” I had to take note*. Daniel Corbett, our new Jim Hickey, is a weatherman to end all weathermen. ... I strongly recommend tuning into the ol’ 6pm news if you haven’t already seen his scintillating ... caress of the South Island.

It’s an unexpected transition from ... Jim Hickey, especially with the spritely Sam Wallace flexing in the wings. I was expecting TV One would seize the opportunity to overhaul the weather and make it a bit young, a bit sexy, a bit Sticky TV. Instead they went with what can only be described as a jokey British version of JIM HICKEY in a suit.

I love him to bits, and I’m not the only one. After a small flurry of research I found this incredible fanblog devoted to the man himself [link edited to point to main blog page]. Tirelessly recording every hilarious analogy, joke and bizarre noise he makes for the world to see, it confirmed my suspicions that we have a little ray of sunshine piercing through the post-Hickey rain cloud.

Corbett goes for an extremely theatrical presentation technique ... A great way to watch him is to sit as close to the screen as possible and just focus on the hands. Honestly gives Cirque DU Soleil a run for ITS money.

“That low coming through will temper your numbers,” Corbett assures us, gently pushing both his palms down like he was resuscitating a ghost. It’s hypnotising ...

Another one of his essential techniques is to personify or anthropomorphise the weather, acting out relatable scenarios for people like me who don’t know about things like “highs” or “pressure fields” or “science”. Last night he described a stubborn ridge as “sat there like a big rugby player.” He would do his rugby player bit two more times throughout the segment...

Last night’s anthropomorphic analogy came in the form of a mouse. I have never heard someone say the word “nibble” so many times on the six o’clock news. He said it five times in the space of three minutes. That’s too many nibbles, surely. The high was being nibbled, the weather system was being nibbled, the rugby player ridge was being nibbled.

Corbett finished his segment on a poignant note; “the mouse eats around the edges of the cheese,” he said, pausing and staring reflectively past the camera and into the deepest crevice of my soul, “and eventually gets to the middle of it.”

Who’s to say if he was even talking about the weather at this point, or simply closing his piece with a bleak reminder that the mouse of time is slowly gnawing away at the cheese of our lives?

Either way, I’ll be checking back in with Daniel tonight, tomorrow, and the next day. Have a nibble New Zealand, he’s really great.

*I have run Dynamo’s picture through the science lab and can confirm that Daniel Corbett doesn’t actually look like him at all, it’s more of a spiritual resemblance than anything.

See! Much improved.

UPDATE MARCH 2015
Missed the update to this piece when it was first published back in January. Read more...

15th October

15th October
Missed the first hour. Again, shocking lack of real highlights (Dan) on the OnDemand 'highlights'.

07:11
Surprised to see even Kiwis harp on about the Great Storm of 1987. Earlier in the show, THAT clip of Michael Fish was shown to mark its 27th anniversary.
Before the forecast, Dan mentioned that he used to work with Michael at the BBC.

Still got a decent picnic day.

On Twitter, @HobelG pointed out that it looks like Dan had a halo:

Saint Daniel Corbett, patron saint of weather.

08:11
Couldn't write quickly enough to catch a Dan-ism about a 'big chap' on the forecast.

There was a discussion about Sam's tweet, blaming Dan for the bad weather on his holiday. There's some strong language in Dan's reply, you may wish to avert your eyes.

08:35
Friday, you dig in the cupboard, pull out the raincoat.

23rd September

Thanks to @ChrisChang_nz we got a heads up on Dan's appearance on Breakfast.

It's always around the equinox ... where you just get the weather just going- like Mother Nature's taken her toys in the pram and said, 'what's this? ppt!' and tips it over.

Mother Nature just takes a bit of time to get into the new summer wardrobe.

We're still going to get some nice weather where Sam's gonna wheel out the barbecue.

It just might take Mother Nature a bit of time to get the calendar in the post and say, 'ah, it's July - or January.'

Here's the video:
El Nino yet to take hold in NZ. It's also embedded, below.

22nd September

Just happened to be watching One News this morning (yeah, timezones) just in case, when up popped Dan talking about the weekend's wild weather.

Here's the video:
Wild weather hits New Zealand (and on YouTube, below)

Dan's on briefly, about 13 seconds in.

EastEnders

Now here's a sentence I never imagined I would write; Dan was on EastEnders tonight.

Peter Beale's just turned off the BBC weather forecast, presented by Dan Corbett... who moved to New Zealand in 2011. #EastEnders

— Mark Simpson (@mark_simpson) May 13, 2014

Look! There he is!

Not quite sure what the BBC's done to the iPlayer but I can't find a way to link to a specific point in a programme any more. Not that it's really necessary in this case; Dan is on right at the start, immediately after the opening titles.

...your car, you shift it into a different gear, that's what's going to happen. It's all down to the wind, next couple of days that warm southerly wind could push temperatures up across a good part of the British Isles. Then, shift the wind, down comes the cooler air and some of us by the end of the week might be grabbing a couple of extra pullovers. And look at the temperatures, middle twenties for some of us...

At which point Peter Beale rudely turns the telly off.

EastEnders script writers: to add realism to your soap opera, either use a weather forecaster who didn't leave the BBC / the UK almost three years ago or at least have Peter Beale stare in awe at the telly until the forecast had finished in the manner of most normal people viewing one of Dan's broadcasts.

Despite there being a couple of Dan-isms sparkling in that short clip, I can't find any mention of them on this blog. GASP!
UPDATE:
Added a searchbar thing to the blog and found it straight away - it's a forecast from September 2010.

Watch EastEnders on the iPlayer (available until 19th May) and there's a Vine of a small snippet of it, below.

That's the weather, for now.

From MetService's announcement on Facebook:

Dan has decided to take an extended break to travel overseas before deciding on his next career move. We wish him all the very best and will miss his fantastic one-liners and amazing ability to entertain (while communicating important information!)

Some serious Dan-appreciation going on in the comments there.

Dominion Post
Colourful Corbett leaving MetService

The man who made talking about the weather an art form is leaving MetService.

Dan Corbett is today having his last day at MetService, where he has worked since 2011 – explaining the weather in colourful terms that people with no knowledge of meteorology can understand.

A "rip-snorting southerly" that slammed into Wellington last June was "like a freight train without a driver", a low stalled in the Tasman Sea delivering warm air to New Zealand was like a "like a car in mud", and a fine day in spring has been "the kind of fine day you'll want to grab with both hands and say 'it's mine'."

Corbett – a Brit who previously had been a television weather forecaster for BBC in Britain and the United States – plans to take his family travelling, then to embark on "the next phase of life, whatever that happens to be".

Arriving in Wellington in 2011, he was soon in the middle of extreme weather events, including snow falling in Courtenay Place and The Terrace in Wellington that year, then last year’s June storms which created havoc around Wellington, including at Corbett’s home, where a tree crashed into his shed.

Even after covering tornadoes in the United States, New Zealand proved exciting in the meteorology game – especially compared to Britain’s bland weather.

"Here, you get some really, really mean weather."

His colourful turn of phrase was an effort to make the weather understandable to all, he said.

For example, rather than talking about an "intense trough" he would also explain it as the sort of weather "all the ducks at the duck pond will be smiling".

There's a great video compilation of Dan-isms at the top of that article which is well worth a watch.

Campbell Live
Celebrating three years of Daniel Corbett
Wow. A feature on a nightly national news programme. Imagine THAT!

Whena Owen interviews Dan in his last hours at MetService as he is clearing his desk.

Over some footage of him at the BBC:

"Dan came here to the New Zealand MetService from the BBC where he had a bit of a cult following."

HAD? He still has, Ms Owen.

We hear Dan is going travelling around the world with his wife:

"Probably spend some time in the States, maybe in the UK and then after that we'll just see what life brings."

Then Dan gives his final forecast:

"For Sunday for a lot of us it's just a nice day. You wake up in the morning, maybe knock on Mum's door [knocking gesture] and say, 'come on, we're going for lunch,' and you'll have a nice day ... Some nice-looking weather just to finish off across most of the country and that's the weather from Dan."

There's a Vine of that sign-off - and video of the whole thing - below.

As I said three years ago, I'm hoping this won't spell the end for this blog and that we might still hear from Dan from time-to-time.

I'll be sure to post any news here and on Twitter too.

Until then; that's the weather, for now...

29th April

National PM
Storms:
Almost like a washing machine, different lumps of clothing spinning around [spins hands round], different lumps of energy.

All the bits and pieces like a bit like an angry octopus going like this [flails arms madly].

See that next little low? Almost like spokes like lumps of washing, spinning around in the old washing machine.

Clearer skies and light winds, perfect recipe for the temperatures to go, boom [dropping gesture], straight down at nights.

This weather system, it's done its thing, there it goes, b-bye.

Auckland PM
That high sits in place, shifts the car into park and hangs around for a while. That's the weather for now...

Christchurch PM
You'll be outside grabbing the logs, maybe the extra blanket or two.

Australia

Looks like Mother Nature's probably been outside in the back just putting on her ugly face [gestures doing so].

Good line of colour there, like taking a red can of paint [gestures holding up a paintbrush] and gone pfmmm, like that.

Shame I didn't have the opportunity to Vine this one:
Another surge of colder air from the Southern Ocean, so it's almost like Mother Nature's sort of sitting outside [this next bit almost growled through gritted teeth - see pic] aaargh, aaargh [then normally] saying, 'colder air is coming.'

You're heading there and you're thinking, 'ahhh, sunbathing,' [arms out]. Grab your extra layers.

Firstline
Timaru hit hard by flooding

We've had a bit of a weather system that's sort of like a spun round octopus of sorts, different arms flailing, different areas of rain.

The radar's been lit up like a Christmas tree.

28th April

National PM
All of these bits, like I've taken some red paint and just going [flicks hand at map], pmmm, pmmm, pmmm.

It's almost like a drunken octopus spreading out its arms [does so].

Smiley face [draws one in air] next to Thursday, good day for the washing.

Christchurch PM
Grab your logs, some chilly nights to come.

Rural
Mother Nature, she's got the old mittens in her hand and she's got the cool air sitting on the doorsteps as well. That's the weather for now...

Australia

That front there, it really has some good ooomph with it and a good bit of push, he doesn't wanna stop, like a freight train.

The Southern Ocean's saying, 'hello, I'm here.'

Thirty degrees, that's nice. Somebody goes 'one, two, three, flick the switch,' twenty one. Look at that, the Southern Ocean, like a windscreen wiper, nyerrrww, [see pic] really cooling things down.

There's video of this one and today's Pacific forecast, below.

LiveSport
We'll always see what Mother Nature brings because you never [?] always the trick where she keeps one hand behind her back and we don't actually know what's in that hand that's hidden behind the back when she finally goes 'da-daa, here you go.'

New Zealand Herald
Hail, thunderstorms and snow expected over next 48 hours

The wintry blast has come as a new low forms east of Canterbury, MetService meteorologist Daniel Corbett said.
"It's actually on the radar spinning nicely like a car stuck in the mud."

There was also a "small chance" of a tornado along the North Island's west coast, Mr Corbett said.
"These are not not like those big Wizard of Oz ones."

Breakfast
Heavy rain in Canterbury and Otago

Mother Nature's sitting outside with her winter catalogue saying, 'Yeah guys, this is to come.'

We'll all be maybe looking for the extra blankets, maybe notching up on the heat pump or something or grabbing some extra logs to the fire.

One News
Dan is seen, indoors this time, talking briefly about the month of heavy rain. The bit with Dan is about 1m 20s in.

17th April

National AM
Troughs on the low:
It’s almost like a spider spreading out its arms [arms out].

Easter Sunday, you’re putting the eggs in the garden with the bunny.

Auckland AM
Showers; shhhw, shhhw, [waves hand from side to side], they come through.

Christchurch AM
Friday’s a day where all the ducks at the duck pond [smile gesture] have a smile, if they could smile.

Wellington AM
That’s how it looks, like taking some blue paint and going, pfoom, like that [not quite a throwing gesture].

For Easter Sunday, when the bunny’s hopping round the garden, there still might be a few showers.

National PM
A pretty mean tropical low is working its way in. You can almost say it’s the big attack of the big red blob.
There's a picture of that one on Twitter.

Our rainfall, we could easily be seeing as much as two hundred to three hundred kilometres, erm, millimetres of rain. Spit it out.

We get the little spokes, like a bit of a mad octopus flailing its arms around [does so].

Going into Easter Sunday, the bunny’ll be hopping about, he’ll be saying [bounces], 'yeah, this is OK.'

Severe
You can imagine the list of watches and warnings is a bit like a laundry list.

Australia
It’s another day for the sandwiches [eating gesture] in the park, 29, even a trip to the beach.

Pacific
If you’re going in the next couple of days, sunglasses [sunglasses gesture], bucket and spade, you’re in pretty good shape.

Marine
You notice how we just lose a lot of colour, we go back to our purple, smooth. That means things are just going 'ahhh', just chilling out.

Auckland PM
Even on Easter Sunday, don’t be surprised, the Easter Bunny, he might be like this [bounces, umbrella gesture], bouncing about with a raincoat and an umbrella.

Farming Show
We kick the thing out the back door and the centre of it will sneak round the back of the garden.

Listen.

Guessing that the following two TV bits belong here. Might be 24 hours out. Timezones.

Breakfast
Wet weather set to end just in time for Easter

The Easter Bunny will actually have sunshine too but he might have an umbrella in his hand.

Firstline
Weather: Rain forecast for Easter
From the video:
You almost imagine Mother Nature and the Easter Bunny having a bit of a tussle right off the bat but they're gonna solve their problems.

By Saturday and Sunday we're kicking the low out the back door.

From the accompanying article:

"If you're peaking [sic] down the road to look for the Easter Bunny, I think he might already have his raincoat on."

Waikato Times
Weather warning for Easter motorists

"It's going to have some fangs to it for sure," Corbett said.

"If folks are travelling on the roads it will be pretty unpleasant. If [holidaymakers] go up north they're going in a better direction. If they put all the kids in the back of the car and said right we're going at 3pm and they drive south they'll drive straight through the front," Corbett said.

Sun Live
Audio forecast! Yes, you can listen to what Dan had to say to their reporter over the phone.

Today's one of those, almost a sleep late kind of day.

14th March

National PM
The cloud:
It looks rather colourful. You'd think I'd been to the crayon shop and said, 'can I have a green, can I have a red?'

Wind arrows:
See all the pinks, like a school of salmon in he old spring, racing their way in.

Severe
We take this low and it does a bit of a doohickey. What does it do? zzzhww, slowly travels its way across the south and the east ... a big old windbag.

By the time we go towards Monday, finally catch your breath, we kick this thing out the back door, lock it quickly.

Australia
Cyclone Gillian:
It's just wandering about. It's almost like a little bit of a- somebody that's lost its road map, not really knowing where to go.

Most of the heat just sort of bottled up here like a big lump of some tomato sauce being spilled on the map.

Pacific
Shear:
Almost like having a hairdryer [gestures holding one] and blowing the edge of a bit of mist.

Lusi:
Look at it winding up, like you put a string round a lawnmower [winding gesture] and you go, shmmm [lawnmower string-pulling gesture], off it goes.

Firstline

Warnings as Cyclone Lusi approaches
These tropical systems, they're a bit like hoovers, you know, you imagine just sucking up all the water, zzhhh, like that and they you're carrying it for a few hundred kilometres and say [see pic] brrr, and you drop it out.

Breakfast

Deadly cyclone Lusi 'a big-beast'
She's a big old beast, she's wound herself up.

They're like a big hoover, these systems. They suck up the moisture in the tropics and then, all of a sudden, go VHUM, like that when they come in.

Taranaki Daily News

Lusi to bring slips, flooding, gales with video!
Tropical rain is like a firehose, shhh, straight out.

13th March

National PM

Notice the coloured bits in the cloud. You say, 'that's nice'. I've had my crayons out.

If you've got outdoor plans, maybe you're thinking, 'I need to cut the grass.' Friday is your day because over the weekend the mower is gonna sit in the shed.

Marine
There's the troublemaker, the big ugly gorilla in the corner of the room. That is, of course, Cyclone Lusi.

Look at the wind arrows and see how they're just scattered about almost like the little ants running around not knowing where to go. They start to get a bit more desire and movement.

Australia
A cyclone:
Remember this one here, a bit like a bull in a china shop, running around.

Heat:
Continues to pump away like a big pot of red soup of sorts there, flexing its muscles but not really creeping south.

Our trough, there it is. Look at this. Ready? One, two, three, VHUM!

Pacific
The swell, it's like pounding your fist in the bathtub [gestures doing so], all the emanating waves.

Cyclone Lusi:
It's going to be slowly easing its way down, see how the numbers [wind speed] drop down, it's moving into the cooler waters. It's like having a neon sign and you pull the plug [gestures doing so], zzzh, and it stops.

Campbell Live

Cyclone Lusi heading for NZ shores
Quite rightly introduced by John Campbell as "the excellent Daniel Corbett."

It's a weekend where your outdoor plans, you stick them in the back cupboard and you say, 'ugh.' Grab your books, you batten down the hatches.

By Monday we can kick it out the back door, lock the door.

28th January

National AM
This bloke, he's just saying, h-huh, I'm coming.

Twenty-two degrees, you'll be outside or maybe in the office saying, 'wow, it's a nice day.'

Decent weather and it doesn't just flink, flink [flick of wrist] in the course of fifteen minutes.

The high just says, 'ah, I'm coming back,' and it does.

National PM
Fine for your maybe trip to the beach or maybe just taking your sandwich at work, head out to the park for the day.

High pressure says, 'hang on a sec, it's my turn.'

Australia
Looks like Mother Nature's really got loads of things in her bag of tricks.

Marine
You look at the winds just scattered about like roaches just running when the light goes on.

As we run through the course of the rest of the week you think, 'aw [throws hands up], it's gonna be a big front, right?' No, hang on. That front weakens, energy is going away pretty quickly, so you just go ppt, like that [pulling apart gesture], it's done.

stuff.co.nz
Summer weather blowing in

Weather forecasters have dug some sunshine symbols out of their 2013 cupboard, and are predicting a week of barbecues and sunglasses across the country.

The next few days bring a front up the country starting later tomorrow, Corbett said.

"We will barely even notice it here in Wellington if you can believe it, because it's pretty weak and it's fizzling as opposed to coming in with all sorts of guns blazing and a freight train just barrelling through."

The high would build back after the front moved through, and would likely bring a bit of cloud and possibly a spot of rain to Wellington on Friday.

"If you look at the Wellington forecast for instance for the coming week, everyone has probably done a double take.

"Then there will be another front with a bit more meat on it, but certainly through the weekend, and into the first part of next week it looks lovely.

"It will be barbecue and sunglasses time, so get them ready.

"It was the joke a couple of weeks ago mother nature didn't receive her 2014 calendar in time. I think she's finally got it, and she's flicked to January 2014."

Campbell Live

Here's "the wonderful Daniel Corbett" on Campbell Live, bursting with Dan-isms.

Mother Nature, she was going to a summer barbecue so they told her, 'bring a plate of food.' She didn't do anything, she barely turned up.

John Campbell's response: "Miserable old tart."

The highs:
They just sat there and went, 'nah-nah,' and didn't come to us.

The wind flow starts to turn round to the milder, northerly direction and everyone goes, 'he-hey!'

We will be digging out the barbecues, the jandals.

At least the anticyclones, they've come to the party.

Imagine making a fruit punch and you didn't have any fruit. Now, all of a sudden, we have the fruit.

Wherever you see the high building like a big mud wrestler going brrr [elbows out] like that, that tells you the atmosphere is settling down.

Amazing.
There's video, below.

Added bonus:

Here's a pic of Dan getting ready for TV tonight, with Wellington looking stunning in the background ^JL pic.twitter.com/ACU3RpevmZ

— MetService (@MetService) January 28, 2014

20th January

National PM
The high, instead of shifting the car into park [gestures doing so] and says, 'I'm hanging out,' it keeps moving.

Wellington

You'd think I've had some blue paint and just gone [throwing gesture], hww, like that.

Severe
Keep an eye on the pinks, the school of salmon swimming round like they're chasing bits of food.

Marine
You're probably going to be saying, 'what's going on?'

Australia
Our monsoonal trough, just wiggling about like a piece of blue plasticine of sorts.

Breakfast
Here's Dan outside in Wellington for Breakfast again, talking about a 'big old windbag'.

It's almost like Mother Nature, she's got her 2014 calendar, but it came about a couple of weeks late for her.

There was another video of Dan on Firstline which I saw as I was going to bed. By morning, it was gone. Poor, orphaned Dan-isms.

19th December

National PM

Our friend [waves], hello; high pressure, that's coming in.

As the high builds in notice it's like a big bubble building in like a big fat bloke going [elbows out - see pic] h-hurr, like that.

Friday was the day we probably marked a couple of days ago with a smiley face [gestures drawing one] on the calendar.

Look at that, that's a decent day. That's a picnic day. It's a day you say 'let's go to the beach.' Why not?

The high builds in and just sort of chills out the atmosphere.

Monday is OK, last minute shopping, you're gonna be fine I think, out and about.

Christmas Day potentially there could be a few showers. Not a washout, we're all inside with the board games.

Australia
We go into the weekend, you're still thinking about the ice-cream man? Well, you might still be.

Pacific
This big lump of colour here and you look at the different colours and you think, 'well, Dan's been to the paint shop.'

Breakfast

Christmas forecast from Dan Corbett "Santa will be in his board shorts but with a brolly in the boot" @MetService mastery!

— Sam Wallace (@BreakfastSam) December 18, 2013

Sadly, there's no video of this on the TVNZ website.

Firstline
A mostly sunny Christmas expected

You can probably picture Santa as he came through, he probably had his board shorts on but he might have a raincoat in the back of his sleigh.

I think, if you're at the barbecue, wherever you might be, just plan for a few showers, but I think you keep your barbecue going, but of course, like me sometimes on rainy days back in the UK, you'd have your spatula like this, umbrella like that [see pic] and you'd be fine.

Watch the video.

The Press
Christmas forecast looks good

MetService meterologist Daniel Corbett said the best conditions for thunder were south of Christchurch, where air from the land and the sea converged to give the storm an "extra lift".

"It's almost like having a big fire and someone throwing on a can of petrol."

Corbett was optimistic for a mostly dry Canterbury Christmas.

"If I was planning a barbecue, I wouldn't cancel it."

But he does advise telling your guests to bring a rain coat, just in case.

25th November

National AM

You take a look at the weather map and it looks a bit messy, all the different lines, probably like a plate of spaghetti.

Decent dry weather, so it's not like you're standing at the bus stop going [looks up - see pic] 'urrrgh, gosh!'

The high just jumps the queue and says, 'ha-haa, me first.' So this low sits there and he's just waiting, trying to come in and he grabs a bit more moisture [gestures doing so] and says, 'h-hurr, here you go, take more.'

National PM
Weird shark week trailer at the start has unusual date grammar; "Sunday December one."

Then Dan;
The past weekend was the sun hats and the sunglasses, over the next couple of days it's back to the raincoats and the umbrellas [umbrella gesture].

This low spins around like a drunken octopus of sorts.

The raincoat by the end of the week, it's gonna be your friend. That's the weather for now [point], more at MetService-[nod]-dot-com.

Severe
After some lovely weather over the past weekend - high pressure, sunshine, beaches, - we're back to the wet weather.

It's like we've had some blue paint, we've bought it in the sale and gone pmmm [throwing gesture].

Pacific
First off you see the big lumps of red and you go wow, like I've had lunch and spilled some tomato sauce on the map.

Dominion Post
Summer temperatures heating up

"It's a bit like a body builder stretching out his arms saying 'ha ha, I'm here' - and that was the high pressure. It sat across the country, gave us the fine sunshine, and was very, very pleasant."

The run of sunshine was set to come to an end today, with a low coming through and the start of what Corbett said would be "more of a raincoat week".

Breakfast
The warm weather of November
Dan Corbett of the MetService joins Breakfast to discuss November's weather and the upcoming summer.

Video
Here's video of Dan presenting a forecast on 31st December 2010.

14th October

Breakfast
'Beast of the winds' dying down
Here's Dan, outside in Wellington again, talking about last night's windy weather.

Still breezy:
They're a small child of the beast of the winds we were seeing last night.

We will start to see the whites of the eyes of this weather system ease away.

8th October

National AM
Today might be one of those days where you're probably digging in the cupboard not only for maybe the raincoat, could even be the extra layers, might even need a parka.

Cold air:
Sitting in the lower levels like a cold layer of blue treacle.

National PM
Quite an active storm moving across New Zealand. It's got a bit of everything, it's like going to the buffet and you just get a bit of all these, some potatoes, some beans, it's got thunder, it's got snow, gales and quite a storm system.

That white there, it's not icing sugar, that is some snow.

Our drunken octopus of sorts of a low, that's what it looks like, slowly starts to ease away.

It's a day all the ducks would stay inside at the duck pond if they could.

Severe
A low:
A bit like a two-legged octopus.

Australia
As we get the flow around [the high], it grabs all this warm stuff here and just says, 'go down there,' [pushes it south] fyooong, there it does. Look at that, like we've spilled some tomato sauce on the map [gestures doing so], pyooo, sorry about that.

Not a bad-looking day as well, fine for the picnics.

Pacific

You see all these little lumps here, like taking lumps of plaster and just going, 'pfff, pfff,' [throwing gesture] on the old weather map there.

Hit and miss showers, the heating of the day bubbles them up like a bit of a pot on a stove on a Saturday morning when you're cooking it away.

Our other little trough flicking by New Caledonia. There he is. You know when he does ... you’ll say ha-haa [points] there it is.

3 News

Spring is a bit of a roller coaster ride when it comes to the weather.

The Southern Ocean ... is the breeding ground for weather systems, just creating them like a conveyor. Here, here's another one, here's another one. [You've just been hit with another one!]

The next couple of days as well, you'll want to almost keep a scorecard to keep an eye on all the different weather systems.

I sometimes like to say, in spring, the jet stream ... it's a bit like a piece of wet spaghetti, it's just wiggling about.

Watch the video Spring storms interrupt tease of summer.

Seven Sharp

Heather du Plessis-Allan interviews Dan about long-range weather forecasting:

If you had a 5-day forecast only, people would wanna say, 'what's it like next week? I'm going to Grandma's house.'

Watch the Weather Showdown.

New Zealand Herald
Risk of thunderstorms for upper North Island

The low was currently in the Tasman Sea, Mr Corbett said.

"Think of it like a two-legged octopus - the centre is the low, one leg is the front that's bringing in that moist, stable air generating the storms and then the other one is the one that's sitting over Canterbury."

Newstalk ZB
Canterbury face weather rollercoaster

"Spring can be like a roller coaster ride where one day you're in a parka, the next day you're out there in jandals and shorts. And unfortunately it was jandals and shorts on the weekend, grab the extra layers today but I wouldn't be surprised if early next week you'll be grabbing the jandals and shorts again."

Video
Here are some videos of Dan presenting forecasts on 19th July 2008 and 9th August 2008.

24th September

National PM
The low:
It just looks like a bit of an angry octopus of sorts, all the flailing arms.

That area there sinks south, like a big angry arm from the octopus.

The main low is just sitting there, spinning, a bit like a lost octopus of sorts in a shop, it doesn't really know which way to move.

The low starts to weaken ... there it is, drifting away ... and then bye-bye, go away [pushes it away]. Quieter day for Friday, smiley face on the calendar [draws one in the air] for that one, that's the washing day.

Severe
Quite a laundry list of severe watches and warnings.

The centre of the low and the big sprawling arm, like a bit of an angry octopus of sorts [flairs arms around].

Australia
A fairly large area of high pressure ... just sitting in place like a big old bloke just stretching his arms out [elbows out] saying, 'hah, I'm here.'

There's your wet weather, ta-daa, coming through.

Pacific
Remember this thing [an area of rain], think of it like a big fat blue sausage of sorts and it finally just sits there and you pull it apart [gestures doing so] as the low keeps moving that way and, before you know it, it's getting thinner and thinner and you say, 'Agh! Enough of that,' [throws arms up] and it's gone.

Our friend, high pressure, building all the time, just saying 'ha-haa, have some decent weather.'

Waikato Times
Ugly' storm to bring rain, gales to Waikato

"It's going to be a pretty nasty 24 to 48 hours but Friday is the day we can put a smiley face next to and catch our breath."

Newstalk ZB
Weather set to hammer North Island

"Tonight will not be the night for the washing on the line. It'll probably be down in the neighbour's garden by the morning."

One News
From video of Dan on One News:
The winds ease back, the low starts to [pants] lose its oomph and by Thursday we're all drying out and by Friday we can put the washing back on the line.

The video is embedded, below.

Video
Here are some videos of Dan presenting forecasts on 19th January 2008 and 23rd January 2008.

23rd September

Severe
A low:
It's pretty wound up. It's like taking a lawnmower string, you wrap it round [gestures doing so] and you go hnnng [string-pulling gesture], off it goes.

Stronger winds:
Like a bit of a toilet flush.

National PM
A quietish sort of day, it's the day with a smiley face next to it [draws smiley face in air].

Then you can see the first tentacle, the first arm from this angry-looking octopus of sorts that's coming down from the north.

Friday, a quieter, a drier day. Smiley face next to that one [draws smiley face in air].

Rural
The next low maybe just rotates round like a bit of a drunken octopus of sorts.

3News
They've got Dan outside again talking about the weekend's wild weather.
A broad upper-level trough, think of like having a bicycle wheel sitting to the west of New Zealand, the centre of it is the engine room, the actual low ... and we had spokes, literally bicycle wheel spokes, troughs as we call them, rotating around.

We hear that Dan lost power at his house during the storm, surprising given that he's apparently capable of generating his own electricity.

12th September

National PM
That big lump of blue, bye-bye to you [waves], off you go, get out of the way.

Friday's the decent day, you probably marked it a couple of days ago and said 'Friday'll be OK' on the calendar. Voila. There you are.

Severe
The storm:
It's brought buckets of rain, it's brought all the wind, a kitchen sink as well.

Don't cut the grass on Saturday.

Australia
A frontal system:
It is a bit of a two-legged octopus of sorts.

This system here doesn't go VHUM, straight through, he sits and more or less pivots, his octopus arms just spread themselves out.

Pacific
A few little strips of cloud there, like you've taken some white paint and gone ner-ne-ner-ne-ner [painting-esque gesture]

Pick a temperature - which one would you like? They're all decent.

Snow
We've got some snow to speak of here at Turoa. Powder's around fourteen centimetres. Sounds good, right? You're waxing your skis already [waxing gesture].

Maybe you're thinking [touches head] 'Monday, I don't need to go to work.' Well, that's your day.

Breakfast

Spring storms begin to ease
They've got Dan outside again. Not quite so breezy this time.

A high sitting to the north was a big, like, cement block, a big fat bloke saying, 'I'm not moving.'

Mother Nature's just waving her wand and saying, 'ha-haa, here you go.'

Put a smiley face next to Sunday and Monday [draws smiley face in air].

11th September

National PM
A yucky day in Auckland, a day the ducks would have a smile [corners-of-smile gesture] on their face if they could. More than likely they'd be grabbing raincoats too.

Severe
The area of blue, that's of course the area of rain piling in like a big fire hose being sprayed at a wall [gestures holding hose] like that, vmmm, coming in.

Pressure gradient opens up and by Friday, voila, no more salmon, they've gone back to Alaska.

Australia
You're heading to Australia over the next couple of days, you're probably thinking about packing. Will it be the warm clothes or just perhaps not really much at all? Take a bit of everything.

Hobart, a cool one at night there. You'll need a couple of logs on the fire or something.

Breakfast

Wild weather lashes the south
Sam Wallace is looking cosy in the studio while Dan is being buffeted by the wind in Wellington.

The high to the north of the North Island is just sitting there, it's just saying, 'ah, I'm not gonna move.'

We're finally gonna wave this thing out the barn door and say, 'get out, goodbye.'

Every so often you get a good gust and I'm certainly holding my feet down and I wish I had a couple of cement blocks on my shoes just to hold me down.

We'll finally take this weather system, kick it out the back door and say, 'enough of you, goodbye,' - it's quite a mean old beast.

Video
Here's some video of Dan presenting the forecast on 9th October 2007.

5th September

National PM
A swirl of cloud:
It's like having a lawnmower, you wrap the string round it [gestures doing so] and you go phoom [lawnmower-string-pulling gesture] and off the low goes.

The ski areas:
Twenty, even thirty centimetres of snow, so good if you're maybe thinking of going shushing [?! perhaps with ski gesture?] in the weekend.

When you clear the skies and you've got the light winds, what does that do to the temperatures? Boom [dropping gesture] straight down, like taking some stones, dropping them off a bridge.

Australia
Right off the bat you see a lovely swathe of cloud - it's almost like you've had a big roller of white paint and just gone [sweep of arm], foof, like that.

TVNZ Breakfast

Here's Dan on Breakfast looking chilly on an outside broadcast.

Friday's a smiley day next to it on the calendar [draws smile in the air].

Mother Nature, she doesn't have a calendar. You can imagine in her kitchen she doesn't have one on the wall, so weather does what it does.

Mother Nature she just says, 'hold on a sec, let's get some cooler weather.'

The jet stream ... undulates a bit like a piece of spaghetti.

It's not over until the fat lady sings so to speak.

Firstline

Here's Dan on Firstline, again looking chilly outside.

Showers:
The radar almost looks like measles, they're just sort of dotted on there.

2nd September

National AM
Showers are fading:
It's like having a hose and you slowly turn it off, a few drips that are still coming out.

A weather system:
It sits and spins like a gymnast doing a bit of a back-somersault.

National PM
A weather system:
Old Mother Nature has got another bag of tricks.

Showers:
There they are, little dots, like little paint dots of sorts being flicked at the weather map [paint-flicking gesture].

See how the winds, the arrows, getting a bit bigger, a few more of them as well, like they're chasing bits of food like little bits of sorts.

Severe
A wintry blast on its way:
This one's got more fangs [makes claw with hand], teeth, it's an ugly thing as well.

Look at the winds [wind arrows], just swimming around fairly happily. Then, like a school of salmon just coming home from a Scottish summer, racing their way north.

3News

Here's "Daniel Corbett Weather Guru" being interviewed on 3News. Where has the warm spring weather gone?

Mother Nature, she doesn't have a calendar in her kitchen; she just gives us what she gives us.

The jet stream undulates like a bit of spaghetti of sorts.

Not sure who the presenter was, but he was appreciative of Dan's talents:
Daniel Corbett and your undulating spaghetti, thank you.

Facebook
At last, the Kiwis are beginning to appreciate Dan's talents:
MetService Weather Guy

We love Dan the Metservice weather guy. We reakon [sic] he is much better than the mainstream TV weather presenters."

The page doesn't seem to have been updated in a while, but there are a few choice quotes, photos and links to forecasts. Worth a 'like' if Facebook is your thing.

13th August

There was a definite sparkle in Dan's eyes today!

National AM
The night times, bring in the washing, it's not a night for the washing on the line.

This weather system doesn't hang about, it's not like it's hanging around having its dinner [was that an eating gesture at the end there?].

By the end of the week, before the raincoat's even dried out, grab it again.

Severe
The heat of the day will just bubble up the showers, almost like putting a pot on the stove that's boiling hot and you just see the bubbles come up, that's what it'll be like.

You pick it up with the winds too and you say, 'wow! It's spring in Alaska with the salmon!'

See how we've lost the pink? They've gone back to Alaska.

National PM
A skinny little area of dry weather. You almost go like that [skinny gesture] to stand in it because it's so small.

Notice how you've got all the lumps here, like taking some lumps of plaster and gone [throwing gesture], pmmm, at the weather map.

Isobars:
Look at the squeeze there, it's almost like we've just gone like that [brings fists together], nyooow, with an accordion.

It's one of those days you might peek out [bends and looks up] and say, 'oh, it looks dry.' Grab the raincoat just in case because, before you know it, shhh [rain gesture], some of those showers will be through.

Look at the night time temperatures, yeah, two. Bmmm [dropping gesture], straight down. Yeah, it'll be an old night for the fire perhaps. And then our low, where is it? Look at that thing there, like flushing water down a toilet of sorts.

It's that system, he doesn't hang about, he's packed his bags, he's gone.

Weather system:
Does a bit of a scenic tour around New Zealand.

Australia
You see all the winds like a school of fish swimming around through the middle of the day.

Pacific
Maybe you're packing the bags, grabbing the suitcase, throwing all the bits and pieces in; you're heading to the Tropics, wondering what the weather's going to be like.

Firstline
Bit of everything on the way

You know what the winter is like these days; it's a bit like Mother Nature, she sort of takes a piece of that, a piece of that, a piece of that [grabbing gesture], mixes it all together [shakes hands in front of face] and says, 'here you go, take it.' [thrusts hands towards camera]

It's like going into the restaurant and you look at the menu saying, 'I'll have one of those, one of those, one of those and oh I'll have all of those please,' and they come back with everything.

With winter, it's always like the circus; it's not over until the fat lady sings.

Watch the video.

1st August

Severe
I mention the winds, you can look at the colours here, it's like Alaska in the spring with the salmon just swimming home.

Breakfast

Here's Dan being interviewed about what the last month of winter could bring.
You always have to remember with winter, it's a bit like the circus, it's not over until the fat lady sings.

Always keep an eye out maybe as you go towards the middle of the month for, as I say, fat lady singing at the circus.

We haven't had the parkas on for many weeks, it's been more than likely almost shirt sleeves.

Finally get to September where we can say 'warm coat, back in the cupboard please.'

The one thing to expect is not to expect what you typically might expect.

11th July

National AM
It's a yucky day, the ducks will have smiles on their faces, but even for them it'll be a bit of 'h-ho, hang on a bit!'

This weather system is a bit like the house guest that comes, a week later it's still at your house, still eating all your food.

View on Vine

By the end of the weekend it slowly says, 'OK, I've had enough,' it starts to move away.

Auckland AM
Different spokes of blue, different pieces of energy, bit of an angry octopus of sorts.

It's not like we flick a switch [gestures doing so] and say 'voila!, tomorrow's fine.'

National PM
We've still got the same old stubborn low sitting across the North Island a bit like a car stuck in the mud [spinning gesture with one hand], just sort of spinning away [spinning gesture again, this time with both hands], a couple of days later you're spinning away, revving the engine and it's not moving.

Notice our little blue sausage, that's the main area of moisture.

Step out in the morning in Queenstown, phew, the old scraper on the car [scraping gesture].

Firstline

Dan is interviewed on Firstline
The low is just spinning around like a lost soul.

This weather system is a bit slow and a bit stubborn, I always like to call this one- it's a bit like a bit of chewing gum stuck on the bottom of your shoe. It's stuck there and you're trying to scrape it off and it won't come off.

The low, it's like a spinning little thing [spinning gesture], it just finally gives up the ghost and says [gasps for air].

Breakfast

Here's Dan on Breakfast
Think of weather systems like bulls in china shops, sometimes they move in their own unique way.

Overall we'll get the days where we sort of say 'extra layers!' and then other days where we say 'hmmm, sunglasses,' [sunglasses gesture] and we'll warm up but overall it'll be just like a winter with some nice days, some fine days and at the end of it we'll sort of say, 'yeah, that was alright.'

21st June

National
You wake up in the morning in Wellington, you probably had a night with the old window panes doing this [flaps arms].

Christchurch
Grab the firewood if you haven't already.

TVNZ Breakfast
Polar blast hits the capital

Dan skypes Breakfast from home due to a slip (I'm guessing this is a landslip rather than a fall). There's dedication for you.

It's like having a big turbine, you wind it up and it's going, vvv, and then you say OK, cut the power, it takes a bit of time for it to calm down.

Getting into the weekend we're all gonna go finally [wipes forehead, sigh of relief], gosh, it's gone.

Watch the video.

Farming Show
Break in Canterbury's wild weather

Forecaster Daniel Corbett says there are still showers across many regions and snow at higher levels but things aren't as intense as we've seen.

"They're looking slowly better. It's not as if we're going to flick a switch and all of a sudden somebody's going to say 'Ta da! It's all gone'.

"But we are seeing a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel from what has been a ansty [sic] beast."

You can also listen to a Farming Show interview with Dan.

Dominion Post
Worst of the wild weather over by @Kerry_McBride
Kerry tweeted her excitement at the prospect of speaking to Dan:

@FrancesCook I get to talk to Daniel Corbett. I'm so freakin' excited.

— Kerry McBride (@Kerry_McBride) June 21, 2013

Here are some snippets from the article she wrote:

"We'll be waking up to temperatures of about 5 or 6 degrees in the morning. Folks will step outside, maybe thinking to grab the paper and hoping for spots of sunshine. It won't be that just yet, we're looking at grey skies."

By Sunday there would be enough dry patches for people to resume their planned activities, Mr Corbett said.

"If it's a picnic in the park with your teddy bears then don't keep those plans, don't go outside. But a bit of DIY to tidy up those tree branches and those sorts of things can be planned for Sunday."

Hawke's Bay should brace itself as the "rain curlicue" moved up from Wellington and travelled north across Wairarapa, he said.

"It's like the spoke of a bicycle wheel. It'll move through tomorrow and flit up to parts of the central plateau."

By Monday, Wellington and the lower North Island would be in for some sunshine as things settle down for most of next week.

"But you'll still need to keep that coat handy."

3News
Bearing the brunt of the storm

Last night Dan Corbett from Metservice told us the southerly storm would hit the capital like a freight train, and he was right.

Dan is always right.

YouTube
1st May 2005
Dan's in Countryfile-casual
Maybe that's the day for hillwalking or something.

Watch the video, below:

20th June

Severe
Have a look at this, the colour here, like we've taken some pink paint and said, 'wow, that's nice.' Whoosh! The southerly, straight through Cook Strait. Right around midnight you'll wake up and say, 'ah, that's what it was.'

View on Vine.

National PM
The storm:
It's still breathing its ugly breath.

The squeeze of the lines, like an accordion like that [brings fists together], can't get any closer.

For many of us it'll be one of those nights with the old window panes going like that [flaps arms], chhh! [rain gesture] You think [looks up], 'what's that?' That's the storm going through.

Come down to Tauranga, twelve. Yep, twelve [chuckles and hunches shoulders], extra layers please.

Skiers are going, 'mmm, this'll be nice.' Certainly.

Now, let's get to the weekend, [to the low] bye-bye, get out of the way, go away.

Auckland PM
It'll be cool. You step outside through the weekend, seventeen? Uh-uh, how about twelve, thirteen, maybe fourteen.

Christchurch PM
Get the logs ready for the fire, it's gonna be chilly.

Wellington PM
It'll be one of those nights where you'll probably have the old window panes going like that [flaps arms]. You'll say, 'what's that?' That'll be the southerly.

Some very heavy rain - that's what greets you as you step out in the morning [parting curtains gesture] you'll go, 'wow, eeeurgh, yucky!' Yes, that's what Friday is.

Australia
Chilly:
Heading there in the next couple of days? Grab some jumpers, stick 'em in the old case [gestures doing so], they will come in handy. You take a look at the cloud and you see one big swathe of cloud. Look at this thing, it's like we've taken a sheet and just gone, fooomph [throwing gesture], like that.

Notice this little lump of blue, like we've just sort of, ta-daa [painting gesture], gone like that.

Melbourne, four; if you're outside for the picnic you'll say, 'jumper please.'

Head out west to Perth, picnic day, twenty, quite nice indeed.

Pacific
Feeling some side-effects of New Zealand's storm:
You can imagine going like that in a bathtub [gestures thumping hand in bathwater] and all the water rippling out - that's what happened.

New Zealand Herald
Winter blast: 'Quite ugly' night to come

"It's a dog's dinner. If this was a basketball match we'd be about the first quarter."

"As we get to about nine o'clock to midnight tonight, somebody is almost like opening the flood gates through Cook Strait and whoosh, up it will come, barrelling in. That will bring the stronger winds into Wellington," Mr Corbett said.

That last quote also features in Polar blast expected to worsen significantly, along with:

"If this was a basketball match we're not even to half time. We've still got the most significant stuff to come," he said.

Dominion Post
What's behind weather forecasts?

A short behind the scenes video featuring Dan, looking at how the MetService forecast comes together. Then, from the accompanying article:

Forecaster Dan Corbett, the face of the MetService, watches intensely, a finger pressed to his lips. Soon his phone will be ringing hot as media throughout the country look for the latest news, as decided by yesterday's meeting, on what to expect from a large intense low pressure system rolling in from the south.

Mr Corbett is tasked with making it digestible to the public. He is famed for his colourful descriptions, such as the coming "rip-snorting southerly" with gusts of up to 130kmh in exposed places. "It's got fangs as teeth and it's ugly."

Watch the video.

TVNZ Breakfast

Meteorologist: Worst is yet to come
Another outside broadcast for Dan, this time it's hood-up weather.

Winds:
They'll be barrelling through Wellington like a freight train without a driver.

It will be a beast of a storm, how ever you want to slice it. By the weekend we'll kick it out the barn door.

Watch the video.

Campbell Live
A year of extreme weather

Quite rightly introduced by John Campbell as 'the excellent Daniel Corbett', we hear they were going to put Dan on the roof, but it was a bit too windy.
We took one look, John, and we said no way. It was almost like a dog going for a walk on a Saturday morning when it's peeing down with rain and you say, 'no, no, no.'

Whenever you have weather systems, every one is different. It's a bit like making cakes; you know you're gonna have different amounts of ingredients, put it together, that's a brown one, oh I've burned that one. But with this one, everything's come together in the right amount. The polar air from the Antarctic ice shelf; yep, got that. We had good upper-level dynamics; yep, we got that. Bring it together, there was a low this morning ... met the polar air and, boom, it literally just came to life ... It literally fuel-injected the southerly so that just came through. It was like a freight train without a driver, just vrooom, straight in..

John: Is this going to get worse before it gets better?

Dan: Yeah. We're almost getting to, if this was a football match, kind of half-time.

Watch the video. Dan's on around 6 minutes 20 seconds in.

New Zealand, I loved seeing and hearing so much of Dan because of your severe weather, but please can you arrange it so that it doesn't occur again in June? Bit busy. Thanks.

19th June

National AM

A pretty mean-looking polar blast is gonna spread its way up across the country through the next twenty-four hours. If this thing had a face it would have fangs, it would have claws, it would be quite ugly, quite mean, something to bear in mind. You look at the weather map, it looks like a plate of spaghetti.

The southerly change:
It'll be like, fwww, a freight train, brrr, barrelling its way through.

TVNZ Breakfast

The southerly, it'll come kicking in. It will have teeth, it will be barking, it'll be cold, it'll be biting.

It's a bit like a smorgasbord of a weather system. Watch out for this thing ... as I say, it does have fangs and teeth and it's an ugly beast.

Watch the video.

Stuff.co.nz
Winter is Coming
Stuff made a short video of some scenes from Game of Thrones mixed with clips of Dan's forecasts (including the excellent 'teeth and fangs' Dan-ism from yesterday's Severe forecast).

When gnarly dudes in medieval fighting kit and MetService's Daniel Corbett join forces to say "winter is coming", you know it's a reason to get worried.

Yep, the forecast is bleak everywhere for the next few days but warm yourself up with our video mash-up taking inspiration from the cult TV show Games of Thrones' catchphrase, here it is again, "winter is coming".

There's a picture of Dan, captioned:

BETTER LOOKING: Daniel Corbett isn't as frightening as a White Walker.

Then there's Manwolf's fantastic comment:

Daniel Corbett's weather show is still conspicuously without opening theme music. A friend and I even wrote a tune and sent it to him to use – no reply! Height of unprofessionalism, Daniel…

It took me a while to realise that it wasn't the content of this clip that kept me smiling all day (although Dan's 'winter is coming' to camera is pretty amazing), but the effort that had gone into making it; it is pure Dan-appreciation.

Big chill brings new flooding risk (by @Ash_Stewart_ et al)
There's a short video of Dan talking about the weather conditions:

As far as the weather's concerned, it is a smorgasbord, we've got a bit of everything coming in. We've got this nasty polar outbreak, it's got really nasty teeth, it's got some bark, it's got some bite.

And, from the accompanying article:

"It's a pretty darn cold air mass," he said.

The Breeze
Found via Twitter, an interview with Dan on The Breeze radio station:
If you're out and about through the course of the day, literally like you're sitting there waiting for a train, it just goes zipping past the old platform and you've missed it.

Bear in mind that strong wind. It'll be one of those days where you'll want to, like I say to my wife, she's quite small, she puts extra rocks in her pocket to keep her from blowing away.

Listen on Soundcloud

UPDATE AUGUST 2013:
Ah, such is the transitory nature of the internets, this has since been removed.

18th June

National AM
Not rain all the time, it's just chwww, chwww, chwww [moves hand in rain gesture here and there].

That whole low deepens, like it's a bit of a wound-up old lawnmower machine just going, schiiing! [string-pull gesture] Off it goes.

Severe

A pretty nasty winter storm heading our way over the next couple of days. If this thing had teeth and fangs it'd be like this [see pic].

You'll know when the southerly change comes through, it's like a freight train, vmmm [rapid sweep of arm], working its way through.

Watch the pinks, salmon, like a school of salmon in Alaska in the spring, rushing their way north.

National PM
A pretty nasty polar blast is heading our way. One of those one where you just wanna take some notes.

These are still some showers feeding in, like lumps of porridge just sort of being chmmm, chmmm [flicking gesture], thrown at the weather map.

A few little spokes, like spokes on a bicycle wheel.

Pacific
Wind arrows:
You see the pinks like a school of salmon coming in for the food, just going in the spring.

Southland Times
Winter's bark and bite set to return

"The southerly change works its way through the north on Wednesday, comes through Wellington like a freight train with no driver, and it just keeps going north all the way through to the far north of the North Island," Corbett said.

Firstline

Heavy rain:
It's like having a Saturday carwash and saying, 'No, I'll have all the sponges please. You fill 'em up with water and you squeeze them out [clenches fists as if squeezing sponges].

It's gonna be a nasty, ugly beast. It'll have fangs, claws and it'll be like this [same 'claws' gesture as in the Severe forecast, above] if you can imagine it.

Even Rachel cracks out a smile for that one. Watch the video.

Manawatu Standard
Snow forecast for parts of Manawatu by @chrishydejourno

"Old-man winter is going to breath [sic] his fangs and what you're going to find is he hasn't brushed his teeth for a long time.

"It's going to feel like we are in the middle of deep, dark August.

"This system has both bark and bite."

Corbett said the May front was an intense one for the region, but didn't have the same stamina as the front coming.

"That was really a quick in-and-out. It's hard to know until we see the whites of its eyes, but this one definitely has the potential to be worse.

"What we do know is that in terms of cold, this will be more a stayer."

Deep, dark August! Sounds like a typical British summer.

Otago Daily Times
Not quite sure why I feel compelled to add a link to this article in the Otago Daily Times, because it is only noteworthy for containing one of the worst photos of Dan I've ever seen.

UPDATE JANUARY 2014:
Such is the transitory nature of the internet, the photo is gone. You should be thankful, it was awful.

17th June

Severe
Notice how the areas of blue are rather more spotty, a bit like blue measles of sorts on the weather map.

National PM
The speckles of blue, almost like blue measles on the weather map.

It looks like a bit of a mess really, like a dog's dinner as far as the old weather map is concerned.

Look at that [the low], like you've taken a string, put it round the low and just gone [string-pull gesture with sound-effect I can't transcribe], off it goes.

TVNZ Breakfast

Outside broadcast!

This weather system, if you notice, is just rotating around like a bit of a washing machine of sorts, different lumps of clothing all the spokes of energy and wet weather.

The weather system is a bit like a kitchen sink, it's got everything thrown in it.

Watch the video.

Dominion Post
It seems that most of my NZ followers on Twitter are journalists. Here's a piece by @Matt808Stewart:

Nasty bite of winter hits

"It'll get pretty ugly at the end of the week, it'll certainly look like winter on the outside of the tin," MetService forecaster Dan Corbett said.

"It's going to be a damn cold end to the week whatever way you slice it," Mr Corbett said.

28th May

National AM
For many of us it will feel like winter. You step to the outside and you're gonna go, 'fwooah!' if you don't have the extra layers.

You can see the blue there, like we've had a blue paint sale of sorts and just painted the whole country [painting gesture].

This southerly really bites its way through. You'll feel that standing at the old bus stop or if you're out and about saying [looks up], 'oooh yeah,' fmmm, [sweeps arm] kicking its way past.

You look at the numbers and you go, 'my gosh, what has somebody done?' Like we've taken the calendar, flipped it forward a couple of months [gestures doing so] and you're into winter.

All of us by the end of the week we can take the old warm layers [gestures setting them aside] and say 'had enough of those for a while.'

National PM

You'll want all the extra layers. You'll be like this [huddles - see pic] at the old bus stop as the abominable snowman.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2013:
There's video of this one below.

TVNZ Breakfast

Here's Dan talking about the cold and snow across New Zealand:

You can almost imagine somebody has taken the calendar on the kitchen wall, thrown it up in the air and it's landed on August, it's just a different feel.

As these southerlies have been coming through they've just been getting a bit more bark and a bit more bite to them, and this one, it's got claws, it's got fangs, it's got some real bite, but the good news is as we go into the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, it packs its bags and heads off east of New Zealand.

Look in the cupboard, grab those extra woollies.

This southerly has kicked through and it's almost like somebody's just opened the barn door and just, fooom [sweeps arm], it's come through.

16th April

National AM
You can just see the cloud here, almost just like we've taken some paint and gone [moves both arms up and down - painting?], fff, like that.

National
The main area of wet weather:
There it is, it looks a bit like an angry octopus.

Auckland PM
It's quite a day for holding onto the old hats [touches head] and probably both hands on the steering wheel in the car [gestures doing so].

Wellington PM
You see the blue, almost like we've had some blue paint and we've gone, vmmm [throwing gesture], like that.

Breakfast

Dan was on TVNZ Breakfast talking about the rain.

You think of a low, you wrap some string round it and, like a top, you pull it [gestures doing so] and, vmmm, off it goes.

Stuff
Dan is quoted in this stuff.co.nz article:

"We have a low now and that's like a spinning octopus that will sweep in and bring rain across most of the country," Corbett said.

There's currently a severe weather warning video on there too.

15th April

National PM
Quite a weather system moving in, quite an active old thing, something to put the smiles on some ducks at the local duck pond - if they could smile. Maybe even half a smile as well for some farmers.

It's a windy old low, like a lawnmower, pull the string [gestures doing so], zzhing! Off it goes.

Firstline

Here's Dan on 3 News talking to Rachel Smalley about the expected rain.

Hopefully, by the time we get to mid-week it might just put half a smile on some farmers' faces.

This weather system, it's got some meat to it. It's got some good meat to the bone, it's not just one of those skinny little weather fronts that we were seeing over the back end of the summer into autumn, that if they turned sideways you couldn't even see them. This is a good weather system, and it's gonna do a bit of a back somersault of sorts.

The weather can always be a bit of a roller-coaster ride.

I think this is gonna be one of those weeks overall where many of us will probably will be digging in the cupboard looking for the raincoat, some of us might even grab the old er, the wellies, the paddock boots so to speak.

Later,
Rachel: Just to let you know they're called gumboots here, not wellies.

Dan: It was in my mind! [taps head, laughs]

13th March

National AM
A 'big lump of moisture':
Think of it like a big wind machine, it just gets going like a big turbine, vvvh, off it goes.

3 News

Here's Dan on 3 News talking about the forecast end to New Zealand's dry spell.

The remains of Cyclone Sandra:
Think of it like a big wind machine, it just gets going like a big turbine [spins hands], vvvv, off it goes - and then somebody flicks a switch.

12th March

Australia
Lumps to the north, that's all the monsoonal moisture bubbling to life like porridge on a Saturday morning on the old stove.

Pacific
Cyclone Sandra is weakening:
It's almost like having a lawnmower, you pull the string [gestures doing so], fyoom, off it goes, then leave it for a couple of days, it slowly winds down and as it gets into the cooler water, see how it's going [pants as if out of breath], it's weakening.

Breakfast

A bit late to the party with this one, found it with only one day left to view online - and it's a gem.

TVNZ's Breakfast weather presenter, Sam Wallace, spent the morning at the MetService offices in Wellington with Dan and colleagues.

15 minutes in:

On the roof with the sunrise, Dan explains how he developed his style:
It's like creating a picture in the mind. That's how I started doing it. When I worked back at the BBC the style was very dry and staid and we were taught how to present and then one day a chap just said, 'have fun with it' so I said, 'well, today's gonna be a day you'll need the thick warm duvet, put it on the bed - and then tomorrow you're gonna be outside, great day for a picnic' and it was just what I was feeling and the next thing it was creating a picture ... it's putting personality into it.

32 minutes in:

Dan shows Sam a weather balloon, talks about data collection and some of the different forecasting models on the computer.

1 hour 1 minute in:

Back outside on the roof, Dan explains how important it is to keep checking the forecast through the day.

1 hour 19 minutes in:

Dan shows Sam the room where the video forecasts are made, then Dan does a forecast with a few -isms thrown in for good measure.

At the end, Rawdon adds,
Fantastic. Dan, it was like watching silk being sewn into a magical cloak. Wonderful. The maestro, the master.

Dan looked like he was really enjoying himself and it was interesting to see behind the scenes. Sadly, it's now no longer available to view online.

30th January

National AM
The main area of high pressure starts to pack its bags and says, 'I've had enough, I'm going away.'

Wellington AM
Looks like another day you'll be tempted to grab the beach towel and that picnic, heading off to the beach.

Pacific
The same line of blue, it's almost like I've taken some blue paint and just gone [broad sweeping painting gesture], bvvv, like that for a couple of days.

3News
Here's Dan on Firstline:

Wherever you see the forecast and you'd see, like, a nice sun symbol you'd say a nice day, light winds, people would say, 'this is great, let's enjoy it,' but when you get three, four, now running onto the fifth day of light winds, sunshine in Wellington, we're all just saying, 'wow, this is wonderful' ... it is just, er, a charmed life so to speak.

UPDATE APRIL 2013:

View on Vine