General February Weather

[NZstorm]

February was a good month over all. Average daily max at Grey Lynn was 25.6C and min 15.7C

[Nev]

MetService February 2017 Summary:

Highs ruled the roost over New Zealand during February. There was a pattern change around mid-month, with the incumbent westerlies being replaced by high pressure over the South Island. The South Island ended up drier than usual overall in February. In contrast, significant rain fell across much of the North Island around, or just after, mid-month. This brought some relief to the drought/dry areas in the north and east of the North Island, but was followed by another dry spell as replacement Highs moved in again.

The month started out very cold in the southwest of the country, and extremely warm in the north and east of the North Island. However, the second half of the month saw warmer temperatures observed right across the country.

Feb 2017 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.gif

Some very preliminary February 2017 figures for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Feb 2016 Average Temps, Rainfall, Sunshine and departures from 1981-2010 normals ℅ NIWA

Site                     T-max °C      T-min °C      T-mean °C     Rain mm      Sun hrs

Auckland, Mangere       24.0  +0.2    15.7  -0.5    19.8  -0.2     73  103%    176   90%
Auckland Aero           24.6  +0.5    16.4  -0.1    20.5  +0.2     60   85%
Tauranga Aero           24.7  +0.7    16.5  +1.0    20.6  +0.8    154  179%    n/a   n/a
Hamilton Aero           24.9  +0.2    13.4  +0.5    19.2  +0.4    139  188%
Hamilton, Ruakura       24.6  +0.3    13.8  +0.5    19.2  +0.4    102  145%    154   78%
Wellington, Kelburn     20.3  -0.3    13.7   0.0    17.0  -0.2     83  118%    190   90%
Christchurch Aero       22.5  +0.6    11.0  -0.6    16.7  -0.1     20   47%    199  102%
Dunedin, Musselburgh    19.0  +0.5    10.9  -0.6    15.0   0.0     39   57%    215  137%
Greymouth Aero          19.8  -0.3    12.7  +0.1    16.3  -0.1    139   86%    223  125%

Note the Sth Akld rainfall figures are lower than other parts of Akld, e.g. Whangaparaoa recorded 92mm. Other notable rainfalls include 230mm at Rotorua Aero. Also, Wgtn is missing one days's sunshine data.

[RWood]

Note the Sth Akld rainfall figures are lower than other parts of Akld, e.g. Whangaparaoa recorded 92mm. Other notable rainfalls include 230mm at Rotorua Aero. Also, Wgtn is missing one days's sunshine data.

Kelburn total for whole month was 199.4 hours - not far short of average. However as I expected the Sept-Feb total of 999.5 hours is the lowest on record, beating 1992-93. The record lows for September and January were the main contributors, but each of the 6 months had less sunshine than the LTA - that has not happened before, though a period in 1952-53 had 7 or 8 months below average.

[RWood]

Meanwhile, still waiting for the statistics report to appear on January's summary ...

[Richard]

Feb figures - 2.2 mm total for the month
- highest temp 30deg 2th
- lowest max 12.3deg 8th
- lowest overnight 1.8 deg 9th
- highest overnight 19.2 deg 6th

[Nev]

Here's NIWA's preliminary, 'February 2017 National Climate Summary'.

Wet for some of the North Island, dry for the South Island


The national average temp of 17.2C was 0.1C below normal.

The month's highest temp of 35.5C was recorded at Wairoa on the 6th, and the lowest of -1.5C was recorded at Hanmer Forest on the 15th.


Also NIWA's preliminary, 'Summer 2016-17 National Climate Summary'.

A cool summer for most but dry in the north and east

[spwill]

Much of that wet for the North Island falling in two or three days mid Feb which transformed the landscape from very dry looking to lush green in just a day or two.

[Nev]

Some eastern parts of Northland also got a pretty decent dump on the 9th, e.g. 64mm at Kerikeri Aero...