On Jan 27, 4:29*pm, Weatherlawyer wrote:

Well it has a legacy:
The run of Blocking Highs from summer 2010 through the winter of 2011
led to the inevitable Japanese disaster of last March.

Judging by the tributes here, Paul clearly had the admiration and
affection of many, something which must console his family somewhat at
a difficult time.

Blocking highs have been in our news (explicity or implicitly) in
recent times - the pathological weather of December 2011 being just
one case:

http://www.niwa.co.nz/climate-summary-for-december-2011

The township of Takaka (or rather a station a few kms to its
southwest) had an extraordinary monthly total rainfall of 1233mm (over
half the annual average), and Nelson city got slips and floods in its
wettest month since the 1870s.

A retiring met. forecaster made some comments to the effect that more
blocking highs were in evidence in recent years - though the next
reasonably length non-Nina (ie neutral or Nino states) period may put
his idea to the test.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6317...hermans-career