New Zealand Weather

[Styx]

On 16/12/2015 at 6:49 AM, Chris W said:

Looking forward to the maximum temperature on Monday with this hot Aussie airmass and the foehn wind off the Alps, though sleeping may be hard Sunday night!

 

 

It looks like you got that December record in Christchurch and by quite a comfortable margin.

[RWood43]

On ‎21‎/‎12‎/‎2015 at 0:01 AM, Styx said:

It looks like you got that December record in Christchurch and by quite a comfortable margin.

This thread (towards the end) gives some details. Impressive, but not as anomalous as the event on 7 February 1973 when 3 locations reached 42C (or rather, 42.4C, 42.3C and 41.6C, the latter at Christchurch Gardens).

http://www.weatherforum.org.nz/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5480&p=158504#p158504

[WillinGlossop]

pleasant 27c here in coromandel yesterday.... Blue skies again today.... Hoping showers hold off over new years.... Off to sample some oysters....

[WillinGlossop]

Sunny and hot..... Loving beaches in coromandel....and food, and local peeps, and beer and company ....

[Kiwi]

3 hours ago, WillinGlossop said:

Sunny and hot..... Loving beaches in coromandel....and food, and local peeps, and beer and company ....

Very envious WillinGlossop. Precious little blue sky back here in England.....and miss the Pohutakawa's at this time of year (they were just starting to flower when I was over at the beginning of Dec)

Looks like you've got some rain to contend with on Wednesday and Saturday, but at least the sun will come out again. Touch and go here whether the sun will even bother making an appearance for the whole of January!!..... so make the most of everything that a NZ summer has to offer.

[RWood43]

Coromandel could cop some very heavy rain around 2-3 January, depending on the trajectory of an ex-tropical low.

http://about.metservice.com/homepagerss/

 

 

[Kiwi]

1 hour ago, RWood43 said:

Coromandel could cop some very heavy rain around 2-3 January, depending on the trajectory of an ex-tropical low.

http://about.metservice.com/homepagerss/

 

 

Wow!! ...looking like 2016 could start very wet. Looking further north towards "home"- Whangarei...they're currently forecast almost 200mm of rain over those 2 days.  

[WillinGlossop]

Rain didnt materialise yesterday but weekend forecast looking wet..... Still nice warm day. 25c..... Just got some new years essentials in town, very busy, washing out drying.... Another afternoon on a beach? Lookslke next week warming up a bit and drying out.... Before heading to vancouver.... So love nz.... 

[WillinGlossop]

Well wet windy and warm here.... Had 120mm here according to local weather station..... More rain and thundery showers here today.... Wind has abated.... Hopefully slightly warmer tomorrow..... Forecast going for 25-26c tomorrow.... Happy 2016 everyone!! 

[Kiwi]

Hear that more than a few campers have packed up (soggy) tents and headed home. The metservice forecast says that the Coromandel can expect another 80mm up until 11am Sunday.

http://www.metservice.com/tv/

Hopefully thereafter the sun will emerge......and at least its a lot warmer than Vancouver will be.

[WillinGlossop]

Hehe yep definitely warmer than vancouver.... Its pretty humid today.... Forecast going for 25/27c today.... Going to see if we can find pub doing sunday roast.... Rain stopped and sun out atm.... Lots of wet campers around over weekend.... Went to thames yesterday for drive.... Really torrential yesterday afternoon... Have to try and pop into the "bugger cafe" on way back to auckland wednesday.... Meant to be good grub.... Love their website....http://buggercafe.co.nz

[Chris W]

Yes it was Ed (was typing from the previous page, missed this one entirely!), in fact the Monday in question set a new December temperature record for Christchurch of 36.1C.  It was a hot day for sure!

Quite normal to get foehn winds in Canterbury, and to occasionally drag a hot airmass over from Aussie, but the westerlies have been more frequent with El Nino so this setup was a matter of time. We may get it again before summer is out.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Chris W
Missed page 2 of this thread

[Chris W]

On 12/21/2015 at 0:01 AM, Styx said:

It looks like you got that December record in Christchurch and by quite a comfortable margin.

She was a hot one alright!

[Chris W]

Autumn has been very warm and dry in Christchurch and many parts of NZ.  Most days have been over 20C since March and the start of May actually became warmer than the end to April with temperature maxima of 23-24-23-23-15-22-21 for the first 8 days of May and the mean temperature for the airport running roughly 5C above average!  There has been no rain in Christchurch for 3 weeks and only 8mm in the last month.

Looks set to continue, as what was looking like a strong southerly this week is being flattened out into continued strong northwesterlies which will make Canterbury warm and dry.  The west coast will get a soaking however.

[Kiwi]

Very pleasant weather at the moment here  close to Whangarei Heads. A bit of rain tomorrow might encourage me to focus on some Christmas shopping! The run up into Christmas looks to be largely fine with temps around 24c, but uncertainty re cloud cover. Hoping for a sunny Christmas Day for the BBQ and to appreciate the stunning views from the house we're renting.

Anyway, the sun is shining now so best make the most of it for the next 10 days or so before our return to the gloomy Brit winter. "Will it snow at Heathrow on 31 Dec?!"

[Kiwi]

Bay of Plenty area looking wet and windy overnight thanks to Cyclone Cook. A state of emergency is in place in Bay of Plenty and the Thames-Coromandel District.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/328715/live-cyclone-cook-bears-down-on-nz

http://blog.metservice.com/CyloneCookUpdate13April

[Summer Sun]

Heavy snow and Gales batter parts of New Zealand

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/40583568

 

[knocker]

New Zealand storm: states of emergency declared as flooding hits South Island

Quote

A ferocious storm has buffeted the lower South Island of New Zealand overnight, with three states of emergency declared in Christchurch, Timaru and Otago and the city of Dunedin accessible only by air.

The southern city of 120,000 people was cut off by road after major landslips blocked access. Small coastal communities on the Otago Penninsula are also cut off.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/22/new-zealand-calls-in-the-army-after-ferocious-storm-hits-south-island?CMP=share_btn_fb

[Chris W]

Christchurch has just experienced it's longest dry spell in 74 years, with less than 1mm for the past 46 days. Added to well above average December temperatures which have consistently stayed at around 30C. It is very hot and very dry!

 

Remarkably the year was very wet before that, particularly winter. Christchurch airport recorded its average annual rainfall by October. A year of real extremes!

[Summer Sun]

 

[Summer Sun]

 

[Chris W]

Fehi triggered a change from a very hot summer, quite glorious in December and January overall, to a very wet autumn for most of NZ. Cyclone Gita was terrible for central NZ in particular.  Indeed the hydro lakes are their fullest for this time of year for around 20 years!  It has been westerly-dominated from April since the cyclones and other lows soaked us in Februqry and March, but a drier and very pleasant start to May.  Possible signs of a change to colder/stormier conditions mid-May, perhaps as a result of the SSW currently underway over Antarctica as I posted about in the aussie thread.

[forecaster]

We just passed the Perihelion, when Earth is closest to the sun. This is when NZ records its highest UV values. Wellington is hitting 12 each day now.

As you can see, for about 4-5 hours every sunny day from November - February, the sun in central NZ is stronger than has ever been recorded in the UK. It's probably more like 5-6 hours and October - March in northern NZ. Even in early November in northern NZ, the peak UV index is already higher than has ever been recorded in the UK. 

Effectively, a 25C day in NZ does not feel like a 25C day in the UK. One reason is the sun (you cannot really "enjoy the sun" in the same way you might in the UK); another reason is the ability to get higher dewpoints. But that depends on location, and NZ is also capable of getting lower dewpoints than the UK in decent foehn wind situations. 

 

[Altohumorous]

Threat of the Cyclone currently in the Pacific Islands near Fiji heading either into Eastern Australia or down to Northern NZ in a few days time. Looking like being a biggie. Hope the islands don't cop it, it's slow-moving.

 

Edited February 17, 2019 by Altohumorous
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[RWood43]

A bit late - a new 48-hour record for rainfall in NZ was set at the Cropp Waterfall site in Westland (975m ASL) during a major rain event 25-27 March, which caused a lot of damage, including the washout of the bridge over the Waiho river at Franz Josef. Cropp recorded 1086.5mm from 09:12 on the 25th to the same time on the 27th, breaking its own record of 1061mm on 1-3 January 2013.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/112018973/vital-waiho-river-bridge-reopens-reconnecting-recovering-west-coast

Average annual rainfall at Cropp (1982-2018) was 11280mm, and there are certainly wetter spots that haven't been measured properly yet.

Edited April 27, 2019 by RWood43