Why the intense rain in northern NZ? It's about #convergence - like lanes merging on a motorway causing congestion. A Nor'East airflow (due to high pressure to our east), merging with a Nor'West airflow (from a low over the Tasman) & they converge over #Northland & #Auckland.

We have issued an emergency mobile alert that says: Heavy rain and thunderstorms are affecting the Auckland region and expected to continue into the evening, potentially through to midnight tonight. If your life or property is at risk, phone 111 immediately. [1/3] #WeatherUpdate

I’m considering ditching Twitter Blue for the following reasons. So far it seems of really limited benefit for the price, compared to non-Blue; how about you? Editing Tweets: this is good and useful, but I did without it for 16 years and got used to it. Priority tweets and replies: I don’t see any evidence of this for my tweets, and tweet views haven’t increased since adding Blue. Longer Tweets: I don’t need that (except this one, and I could just make it a thread). Blue Check Mark: I don’t really care; again I did without it for years, and now it only shows that you pay. Upload longer videos: From a couple of trials, people on Twitter seem to prefer really short vids. 1080p vids: when I went to upload one, Twitter recommended not to use this, as it’s not necessarily, and it causes larger file sizes - not great for Twitter timeline scrolling really. NFT profile pics: who cares? Maybe I’d keep it if I thought I could build a paid subscriber base, but there’s not enough interaction to do that; that’s likely my fault for not putting enough time in. Have I missed anything?

Sundar Pichai says AI technology could be more profound than fire or electricity. What do you think of that? Please, be respectful and kind to each other in this discussion.