General March Weather

[Manukau heads obs]

nice CB clouds to my east , lit up by the setting sun

[NZstorm]

The twister in Hokitika today is the first signs of the autumn/winter tornado season. The dewpoint in Hokitika today was 17C.
Subtropical air feeding down into Tasman Sea troughs is the classic tornado set up for NZ.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I see,(more apprioprate to this topic rather than my "I see" topic in the off topic section) that this March ending is comparable to March 2002 which has similar dates.
According to my diaries,March 2002 had mild to warm weather until April Fools day when the weather changed and there was a thunderstorm over Chrictchurch and a change to much colder weather.
This looks the same set-up for Wednesday/Thursday depending on the activeness of the trough

[Manukau heads obs]

cool about the tornado today
I looked at the rain radar around 9:30am and saw the line of heavy showers off the west coast of the SI and thought they would get good rain...but as NZ storm said...lots of moisture...key ingredient..

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

cool about the tornado today

Yes. People are more aware these days and with cellphones with cameras in, you can record it, in an instant.
Looked similar to the Greymouth tornado, a few years back, (have tolook at the date)
These waterspouts/tornados are unique to the West Coast,not funnelly but messy looking vortexs, moving inland from onshore.

[David]

Average temp (1-minute mean) of 19.0C here for March. The (min+max) mean was 19.3C. Only 0.5C lower than both Jan and Feb, it really was just an extension of summer Only 24mm through the month brought the yearly total to 53mm (averaging 17.7mm per month this year!!)

[Nev]

We managed 4.0mm early on Sunday morn and another 2.7mm later that night, bringing our March total to 22.4mm (ytd 37.2mm).

[jamie]

We managed to get to 33.8mm with that 11mm that dropped quickly the other night. Most of our immediate neighbours had nothing or much less so we were very lucky.

Average temp was 17.8C which is exactly the same as Feb was. March aslo had the hottest day of the year for here too with 29.6. Hamilton recorded 32 or 33 that day i think.

[NZstorm]

With historical temp data, I like to see the average max/min. The mean temp seems less informative.

[David]

With historical temp data, I like to see the average max/min. The mean temp seems less informative.

My mean min was 14.4C, and the mean max was 24.3C which is comparable to most Januaries.
All my max/min/means are on one page. http://howickweather.info/historical.php

I wonder how March 2013 ranks compared to the warmest on record. Looking forward to NIWA summary

[NZstorm]

Thanks for the update David. Yes 24.3C max is an interesting number for March.

The long term March average at the airport is 14.9C to 22.5C. In the hot 1998 summer the airport recorded 16.9C-23.4C.

[Nev]

Average temp was 17.8C which is exactly the same as Feb was. March aslo had the hottest day of the year for here too with 29.6. Hamilton recorded 32 or 33 that day i think.

Yes, some interesting figures for Hamilton this March. On the 11th Ruakura recorded 32.6C and the airport 30.7C - both of which I think were March records. Average T-maxs were also extraordinary, with Ruakura 4.4C and Hamilton Aero 2.9C above normal.

Below are a few stats of average T-maxs and T-mins (°C) this March for the main-centres…

Code: Select all

March 2013               Ave           Ave            Ave            
Site                   T-mean Norm    T-max  Norm    T-min  Norm      Rain  Norm

Auckland, Mangere       19.5  +1.0     24.0  +1.6     15.0  +0.4      48.2   56%
Auckland Aero           19.8  +1.0     24.4  +1.8     15.2  +0.3      39.8   53%
Tauranga Aero           19.4  +1.2     24.1  +1.6     14.8  +1.0      20.2   21%
Hamilton Aero           18.5  +1.6     25.8  +2.9     11.2  +0.2      35.7   42%
Hamilton, Ruakura       19.1  +2.0     27.1  +4.4     11.1  +0.3      23.6   30%
Wellington, Kelburn     16.8  +1.0     20.1  +1.0     13.5  +0.9      90.4  106%
Christchurch Aero       16.2  +1.3     21.8  +1.5     10.6  +1.0      19.6   43%
Dunedin, Musselburgh    14.9  +1.2     18.5  +1.2     11.3  +1.1      29.8   47%

[Manukau heads obs]

yes, we were the same here for average being 1C up and rain beinmg 50% of normal, compared to Mangere

[spwill]

When you add the sunshine hrs to those temperatures it was certainly a very nice month if you wanted settled weather. I think Auckland sunshine hrs were around 220hrs.

[Manukau heads obs]

has been a great summer for our solar electricity

[RWood]

When you add the sunshine hrs to those temperatures it was certainly a very nice month if you wanted settled weather. I think Auckland sunshine hrs were around 220hrs.

Subject to my calculations from the spreadsheet, Mangere reported 224 hours and North Shore 245. Some exceptionally high totals (as in Feb.) from Kapiti to Waitomo. NIWA report out today at 1pm, according to their summaries web page.

[jamie]

There are some impressive figures in the March report.

Gizzy is one that stands a mile out. Over 4 degrees warmer than normal and their average high was also 4 degrees warmer than normal.

[Manukau heads obs]

there summary statements contradicts the detailed
i.e

March temperatures were
above average
(0.5°C to 1.2°C above March average)
for most other regions, except
Gisborne
and Marlborough
(near average temperatures
there).

Gisborne
21.5
4.1
1905
Highest

is the gisborne figure correct?
(as they did have alot of cloudy on shore winds for a while)

[RWood]

there summary statements contradicts the detailed
i.e

March temperatures were
above average
(0.5°C to 1.2°C above March average)
for most other regions, except
Gisborne
and Marlborough
(near average temperatures
there).

Gisborne
21.5
4.1
1905
Highest

is the gisborne figure correct?
(as they did have alot of cloudy on shore winds for a while)

No it isn't correct. Someone has miscalculated or miscopied. Should be correct in the later stats. report.

The dailies for Gisborne AWS give mean Tmax = 23.5C, mean Tmin = 12.6C.

[Nev]

Re the Gisborne mean temps in NIWA's March Summary, i.e. T-max 27.4C, T-min 15.6C, T-mean 21.5C:

They are from a NIWA's Gisborne EWS site (#24976), which has only been taking air-temp and other readings since the end of last Nov. And although only about 6 kms WSW of MS's city/airport site, it looks to be considerably warmer in terms of both averages and extremes. This is also the second month in its four-month history that it has claimed the nation's 'highest-temp' title. The 34.3C it recorded in March was 3.1C warmer than the airport that day, and its 34.5C in Dec was 2.8C warmer.

[melja]

Funny how all the new station sites appear to be warmer

[RWood]

Re the Gisborne mean temps in NIWA's March Summary, i.e. T-max 27.4C, T-min 15.6C, T-mean 21.5C:

They are from a NIWA's Gisborne EWS site (#24976), which has only been taking air-temp and other readings since the end of last Nov. And although only about 6 kms WSW of MS's city/airport site, it looks to be considerably warmer in terms of both averages and extremes. This is also the second month in its four-month history that it has claimed the nation's 'highest-temp' title. The 34.3C it recorded in March was 3.1C warmer than the airport that day, and its 34.5C in Dec was 2.8C warmer.

One might wonder whether some non-climatological influence may be affecting the readings ... I seem to recall a few years ago some publicity for high readings from an EWS (?) at Darfield which later required adjustment.

The NIWA report clearly confuses the issue as it cites "Gisborne", with records back to 1905, with anomaly values for both mean temperature and mean maximum - as if a site a few months old can even have established normals.

[Simon Culling]

Hey Rupert, its good to see that you now appreciate that event august institutions like NIWA have not got a handle on the sensitivity of sites to outside influences.

The same arguments about site suitability and records often pass the Met Office by. There seems to be a need to show that we are getting plenty of new 'warm' records.

[RWood]

Hey Rupert, its good to see that you now appreciate that event august institutions like NIWA have not got a handle on the sensitivity of sites to outside influences.

The same arguments about site suitability and records often pass the Met Office by. There seems to be a need to show that we are getting plenty of new 'warm' records.

Sounds like a windup Simon! The site is after all quite new, and some checks may be needed. If you read the historical notes as presented in NIWA's CliFLo files there are hundreds of examples of inspection checks and adjustments, repairs or replacements recorded in the histories of both manual and automated sites. If you read the monthly NIWA summaries you will find plenty of comments on new cold records as well as warm ones.

[RWood]

Funny how all the new station sites appear to be warmer

The (comparatively) new Ashburton Aero site was 1.5C colder than the much older Ashburton Council site in February, however ... which may be perfectly reasonable.