Latest news with #Hillyer
Scoop
14-07-2025
- Climate
- Scoop
Fast Fronts Bring Wet And Blustery Conditions
Press Release – MetService Covering period of Monday 14th – Thursday 17th We've woken to a warmer, cloudier and foggier morning across the country today (Monday). Showers about the west will continue to ease, with cloudy areas in the east becoming fine. The snow has been topped up over the South Island so for those that aren't back at work or school, it could be beautiful blue bird conditions on the slopes this afternoon. This settling trend isn't long lived as a quick moving rain band approaches from the west tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. It brings a period of heavy rain and showers to western and northern areas of the country. Thunderstorms are possible about Taranaki up to Northland, as well as Coromandel and coastal Bay of Plenty. MetService Meteorologist Katie Hillyer says, 'The silver lining is that this rain band and the showers will move too quickly to allow the accumulations to climb very high, but we'll need to keep an eye out for the wind gusts as they move through'. A background of strong winds, combined with fast moving features could bring very strong, 80-100km/hr, gusts to Northland and Auckland in the morning and afternoon. By the end of Tuesday, the rain band will be moving off the county and the showers in behind will have eased. As the temperatures drop a bit behind the rainband, the winds will have a cold bite to them, and we will feel a return to more normal winter temperatures. Hillyer advises, 'Snow to 700 metres is possible in the south of the South Island, so those that are travelling should keep an eye out for Road Snow Warnings and stay up to date with information from NZTA-Waka Kotahi'. Wednesday is generally an easing trend across the country, but toward the end of the day we get a bit of a split in the situation. Overnight Wednesday and into Thursday, areas such as Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty will see a quick moving low cross the region, bringing rain, likely to be heavy at times. Further south, there will be showers about coastal areas in the southwest of the country such as the West Coast Region, as well as Southland, but otherwise lots of sun to fight the colder temperatures. Please keep up to date with the most current information from MetService at MetService – Te Ratonga Tirorangi Content Sourced from Original url
Scoop
14-07-2025
- Climate
- Scoop
Fast Fronts Bring Wet And Blustery Conditions
Covering period of Monday 14th - Thursday 17th We've woken to a warmer, cloudier and foggier morning across the country today (Monday). Showers about the west will continue to ease, with cloudy areas in the east becoming fine. The snow has been topped up over the South Island so for those that aren't back at work or school, it could be beautiful blue bird conditions on the slopes this afternoon. This settling trend isn't long lived as a quick moving rain band approaches from the west tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. It brings a period of heavy rain and showers to western and northern areas of the country. Thunderstorms are possible about Taranaki up to Northland, as well as Coromandel and coastal Bay of Plenty. MetService Meteorologist Katie Hillyer says, 'The silver lining is that this rain band and the showers will move too quickly to allow the accumulations to climb very high, but we'll need to keep an eye out for the wind gusts as they move through'. A background of strong winds, combined with fast moving features could bring very strong, 80-100km/hr, gusts to Northland and Auckland in the morning and afternoon. By the end of Tuesday, the rain band will be moving off the county and the showers in behind will have eased. As the temperatures drop a bit behind the rainband, the winds will have a cold bite to them, and we will feel a return to more normal winter temperatures. Hillyer advises, 'Snow to 700 metres is possible in the south of the South Island, so those that are travelling should keep an eye out for Road Snow Warnings and stay up to date with information from NZTA-Waka Kotahi'. Wednesday is generally an easing trend across the country, but toward the end of the day we get a bit of a split in the situation. Overnight Wednesday and into Thursday, areas such as Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty will see a quick moving low cross the region, bringing rain, likely to be heavy at times. Further south, there will be showers about coastal areas in the southwest of the country such as the West Coast Region, as well as Southland, but otherwise lots of sun to fight the colder temperatures. Please keep up to date with the most current information from MetService at MetService - Te Ratonga Tirorangi
Scoop
02-07-2025
- Climate
- Scoop
Filled To The Brim With Heavy Rain
Covering period of Thursday 3rd - Tuesday 8th July We're in the thick of it again today (Thursday), with a slew of Heavy Rain Warnings and Watches, Severe Thunderstorm Watches, Strong Wind Watches, and a Heavy Snow Watch. The hits just keep coming with these quick moving systems, it's giving us weather whiplash. In amongst the widespread rain, the top half of the North Island is on the lookout for downpours with Severe Thunderstorm Watches from this afternoon. Commute time in Auckland is looking busiest, so it's a good idea to head home earlier if you can. MetService Meteorologist Katie Hillyer advises, 'The localised downpours are the real risk we are highlighting with the Severe Thunderstorm Watches; people shouldn't be fooled by the lack of thunder and lightning. It's a good time for people to turn on notifications in the app for any Severe Thunderstorm Warnings that may be issued for their area'. Damaging winds are also possible for Northland and Auckland, with a background of strong winds as per the Strong Wind Watches, combined with the potential of gusts between 90-110km/hr in any Severe Thunderstorms. As the heavy rain band moves off, these areas are not completely out of the woods, with heavy showers and possible thunderstorms and hail on Friday and Saturday. It will take until Sunday and into Monday for these areas to get some settled weather, even if it's not for as long as we're hoping. Heavy Rain Watches have also been issued for the Wellington and Kapiti regions for this afternoon and evening. Rain is setting in the Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough regions as they are under their Heavy Rain Warnings until 7pm today. 'While accumulations are not as high as last week, the saturated starting conditions will play a huge part in the impacts we will see, so it is important to not get caught comparing numbers to last week', says Hillyer. 'We advise on the weather, but local emergency management services and councils know their areas best, so people are encouraged to also pay close attention to their messaging and advice', she continues. After this rainband moves off today, showers, some possibly heavy, continue into Friday and early Saturday before settled weather pushes in. A different flavour in the south of the country, with a Heavy Snow Watch for Southern Canterbury High Country, Queenstown Lakes District, and Central Otago where down to 600 metres, snow may approach Warning criteria, but those down to 400 metres may get a fresh dusting today. Many road passes have the risk of snow settling, so travellers should keep up with messages from NZTA Waka Kotahi. Dunedin and North Otago are also under a Heavy Rain Watch from 3pm-3am, before gradually settling into the weekend.
San Francisco Chronicle
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
John Hillyer, longtime Giants and Warriors beat writer for S.F. Examiner, dies at 88
Covering the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants in the 1980s and '90s, San Francisco Examiner beat reporter John Hillyer was known for cranking out game stories that were clean and polished — and hard for his competitors to equal. On the road with the Warriors, Hillyer could never get his creativity flowing at the courtside press table after a game. His style was to go back to his hotel room, get comfortable, pour a drink and then start writing — a process that could take into the small hours. But he had the luxury of working for an afternoon daily, so his final deadline was not until 3 a.m. His writing routine, which included stripping to his skivvies, became 'road legend' among Bay Area reporters who traveled with the Warriors and the Giants. Dan McGrath, who covered the Giants for the morning Chronicle, would file his own story and wait for Hillyer's version of the game they'd both just witnessed. 'I'd be driving home thinking 'Well, I hope it was good because that's the best I can do,'' said McGrath, who became sports editor of the Chronicle. 'The next day I'd pick up the Examiner and John would have written a better story pure and simple. Tough to compete against, for sure.' But it was also tough for the afternoon papers to compete against the morning dailies. Hillyer had already worked for two of them that failed in Chicago, and he could see what was coming. He retired a few years before the merger of the morning Chronicle and the afternoon Examiner, in 2000. He then pivoted from Oakland to San Francisco and from sports to the fine arts, swapping those nights he'd spent covering basketball for nights at SFJazz or the San Francisco Symphony. He was a longtime subscriber to both, and his dedication to the symphony was so intense that he reduced his subscription from two tickets to one because he could never find a guest as committed to the performance as he was. That one ticket got him closer to the stage, where he could listen more carefully. He also attended the annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival, and knew those 1950s black-and-white murder mysteries by heart. 'John was cultured,' said Glenn Schwarz, longtime Examiner and Chronicle sports editor who was among sports department staffers introduced to classical performance by Hillyer. 'He just loved the theater of it all.' Hillyer had an office at his home near Twin Peaks with all four walls covered either by his album and CD collection of jazz and classical, or his autograph collection. He had 1,000 signatures from sports stars to movie stars, all organized on a spreadsheet. The composers category ended with 195 signatures, the jazz category with 167 names. He also had signed photos of movie stars, which were on display in his annual Oscars party, with ballots distributed and tallied for the prize of a tiny statuette of a director's chair. Hillyer served as emcee up until March, when dementia required a move to assisted care at the Frank Residence in San Francisco. He died April 28, said his companion of 40 years, Charlene Thomas. Hillyer had come down with a respiratory infection complicated by COVID-19. He was 88. 'John never stopped being curious and he had so many interests that he was never bored, and he was never boring to be around,' said Thomas, a retired registered nurse. 'He had a wonderful quick wit. Even with his dementia he never lost his quick wit.' As a member of the Examiner sports staff for nearly 20 years, Hillyer's longest tenure on a beat was with the Warriors during the Don Nelson era. On-court magic was created by Mitch Richmond, Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway, a fast-breaking, high-scoring trio known as Run TMC. This was at the end of the 1980s when interest in the team was suddenly high and media saturation was low. With a later nightly deadline, Hillyer was expected to deliver. 'Because he had a little more time to file his story he could spend more time in the locker room and offer more insight and more reporting nuggets than other writers,' said Schwarz. As a basketball reporter, Hillyer had the advantage of being 6-foot-5, which put him at eye level with the players he interviewed — and earned him the nickname 'the tall guy,' shortened to simply 'Tall.' He took on the Warriors beat at age 50 and survived the daily grind for a decade. He never minded the travel. He could find live jazz or a symphony performance or a repertory theater screening an old movie in any city where he found himself on an off-night. 'John was a really good natured fellow and a solid pro,' said Chronicle Sunday columnist Bruce Jenkins, who has been covering sports in the Bay Area since 1973. 'He had that knack for writing something that seemed really fresh and made you want to read about a game that you had actually written about yourself. I read him without fail for years and years and just admired the hell out of him.' John Whitfield Hillyer was born June 7, 1936, in Evanston, Ill., and grew up in the Chicago suburb on the North Shore of Lake Michigan. His mother, Elinor, was a classical pianist and encouraged John to take lessons. His father, Whitfield, played clarinet in a Dixieland band, and was also columnist for Popular Photographer magazine. He supplied John with a camera, which was put to use the day Gen. Douglas MacArthur came to Evanston. Hillyer, 15 at the time, worked his way to the front of the crowd to get a picture that he carried with him and hung on his kitchen wall wherever he lived, said his son, Michael Hillyer. 'He wanted to be a sports writer from very early on,' said Bob Martin, Hillyer's classmate at Evanston Township High School. At the senior awards night, in 1954, Hillyer won the award for Excellence in Journalism and he was on his way. 'He loved the White Sox and he bled Michigan Blue,' Martin said. At Michigan, he tried out for the freshman basketball team but was cut by the coach, Dave Strack. By the next practice, Hillyer had switched to the Michigan Daily sports staff and was covering the freshman team. 'Oh, you again,' said Strack. Hillyer was assistant sports editor at the Michigan Daily and after graduating in 1958 proceeded directly to a position with the Associated Press in Springfield, Ill. He then advanced to jobs at the Dekalb Daily Chronicle and St. Louis Post Dispatch, before returning home to join the Chicago American, which became a tabloid called Chicago Today. Readers counted on him, and when opening day for the White Sox was rained out in 1973, Hillyer wrote a poem that filled four columns under the headline 'Chill Gives Sox Claus for Concern.' 'Twas the night before the opener and all through Sox Park, the ghosts of the season permeated the dark,' it began, before progressing to the crescendo, 'Happy springtime to all, and for bleep's sake, play ball!' The San Francisco Examiner, which published six afternoons a week and Sunday mornings, in a joint operating agreement with the morning Chronicle, was known for being a writer's paper, and Hillyer fit right in. 'I really liked his company, he was a fascinating and intelligent guy to talk to,' said Duffy Jennings, who was publicity director for the Giants from 1981-93. 'John's stories were always fair and descriptive. He was never adversarial or confrontational with me.' Once Hillyer retired from sportswriting, he was allowed to be partisan, and it all came out in the 1997 college football season when Michigan went from nowhere to national champion. Pat O'Shea's Mad Hatter on San Francisco's Geary Boulevard televised the games live at the bar, with a 9 a.m. kickoff. Hillyer dug up a faded and tattered navy blue T-shirt from his college days and wore it every Saturday. 'We literally would open the bar,' said Leba Hertz, an editor at both the Examiner and the Chronicle, who was with him week to week in a 12-0 season that ended in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. When the Michigan Men's Chorus came to San Francisco to perform, Hiller was in the audience, standing up to sing along with the fight song, 'Hail to the Victors.' 'He had tears rolling down his face,' said Hertz, who would also see this expression of emotion when she went with him to Davies Symphony Hall. 'He probably knew as much if not more about the symphony as he knew about the Warriors,' said Hertz. 'John knew everything about everything. He was the kind of guy who could have gone on 'Jeopardy!' and won the Tournament of Champions.'
NZ Herald
03-05-2025
- Climate
- NZ Herald
Weather: Sunny days and colder nights amid storm clean-up efforts in Canterbury, Wellington
'There will be a few showers this evening, but nothing that will really dampen any clean-up efforts by any of the crews [in Canterbury].' She said most of the showers sit further inland, so people in the plains and Christchurch will only be affected briefly. Is sun in store for Wellington too? Wellington residents were told to seek shelter this week after MetService put out a rare wind warning, saying people faced a threat to life from 'destructive' weather. It was the first time Wellington had received a red warning since the colour-coded system was introduced in 2019. Hillyer said: 'Wellington is a very similar vein to Christchurch.' She said Wellington residents should expect to see some cloud and showers overnight. 'They'll probably last till around early to mid-morning and then gradually clear into a fine afternoon.' Hillyer said the showers might be 'a little bit annoying' for people, but won't be anything like what we was experienced this week. Auckland has drawn the lucky straw - five-day stint of sun Hillyer said April was one of Auckland's wettest, which would have felt like a stark contrast, considering it had an 'extremely dry summer.' She said Auckland should expect 'quite the yo-yo effect'. 'The next four, maybe even five days, are set to be very lovely and sunny for Auckland,' Hillyer said. Auckland is sheltered from a lot of the things Christchurch, Wellington and the East Coast are getting, 'so Auckland is just set to be, quite, quite lovely for the next couple of days'. Aucklanders were under severe thunderstorm warnings last month after being hit by the wrath of Cyclone Tam, which left thousands without power and safe homes amid devastating floods. Colder nights are on the way Hillyer said some central areas of the North Island and quite a few places in the South Island will feel the bite in the air during the next few mornings, particularly on Monday. 'With this oncoming high pressure and clearer skies, we have the potential for some colder nights and some frost, maybe some areas of fog, in quite sheltered places,' Hillyer said. She said for much of the country, it will feel like 'your classic autumn day'. 'You wake up and it's quite chill in the morning, but since we have got the sun there, it'll feel lovely and warm.'
