General December Weather

[snowykiwi]

I’m hoping for a drier January here in Rakaia. 92mm of rain for the month of November. Between 21st and 28th December we had a very wetting 2 and three quarter inches. No fun digging up new potatoes in this sodden soil. Must say it’s been good growing for my new dahlias.

[Nev]

NIWA's current YTD Mangere rainfall of 719mm looks set to completely smash its previous record low of 840mm in 1993 since records began there in 1959. In fact, you'd probably have to go back to Albert Park's 716mm in 1885 to find a lower annual rainfall for the central Auckland area.

Similarly, NIWA's current YTD rainfall for their Hamilton, Ruakura site of 754mm is only second to an earlier Hamilton City record of 732mm in 1914 (note that although Ruakura's records go back to 1906, it is missing data between 1914 and 1919).

Tauranga Aero's current YTD rainfall of 774mm is also set to be its 4th lowest since records began there in 1898.

[Razor]

So it looks like a dry day today, meaning Halswell will finish the year with 383mm. By far the driest year I have experienced anywhere I have lived.

[David]

Will end up with 781mm for the year here - over 400mm short of average. This beats my previous driest year on record by a whopping 244mm (1025mm in 2015). Amazing to think just 2 years ago I recorded 1755mm for the year!

[TonyT]

So it looks like a dry day today, meaning Halswell will finish the year with 383mm. By far the driest year I have experienced anywhere I have lived.

And yet here, just 60km up the road, just over 100mm for December brings the annual total to 645mm.

[Razor]

So it looks like a dry day today, meaning Halswell will finish the year with 383mm. By far the driest year I have experienced anywhere I have lived.

And yet here, just 60km up the road, just over 100mm for December brings the annual total to 645mm.

Yes, we've had 60mm in Dec, which has certainly helped proceedings! But a massive regional difference as you head north away from town

[ricky]

Will end up with 781mm for the year here - over 400mm short of average. This beats my previous driest year on record by a whopping 244mm (1025mm in 2015). Amazing to think just 2 years ago I recorded 1755mm for the year!

I'll end up with 879mm here in Grey Lynn so managed to catch a bit more here not too far away..
Last year recorded 914mm and 2018 1409mm! So you well and truly beat me then

[Awhituobs]

41mm for Dec here and 1145 mm for the year...which is very low...for us...(970mm is our driest year though, 1993 I think that was (el nino year)

[Richard]

Ended up with 549mm for the year. A local farmer and his father have recorded rainfall since the 50's, there records show an average of around 500mm

[Cantab03]

So it looks like a dry day today, meaning Halswell will finish the year with 383mm. By far the driest year I have experienced anywhere I have lived.

Yup! Incredibly dry year and although of recent times we had some nice rainfall, we have had a big decifit here for the year of 2020 when it comes to the average rainfall totals.

[BeaconHill]

Sunset from Wellington just to the right of a collapsing thunderstorm behind the Kaikoura ranges. You can even see the sunset trace on the rain radar.

Thanks for an informative year to you all, and here is hoping 2021 is better for us all!

352EB38E-D3E0-46B7-BC3E-AA34542E93CE.jpeg

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

For the last day of the year, it was a rather cloudy here with Sc layers.
Quite mild with today's temperature maximising out at 23C.
light winds.

[Cyclone Tracy]

December 2020 stats locally –

Mean daily temp = 19.3 (0.3 below 2018/19 average)
Rainfall = 13.2mm (76mm below average)
Prevailing wind SW
1 thunder day.
Humidity 70.5% (4.2% below average!)


2020

Daily mean temp = 16.40c, 0.07c below 2018/19 average.
Rainfall = 690.6mm. 387mm below local average.
Thunder days = 14, 3 less than average
Prevailing wind SW 8 of the 12 months, 0.03km/h below average
Average air pressure 1017.5 , 2.4 hPa above average
Average humidity 77.0%, 2.0% less than average

Notable record - driest year on record beating 2019 (rain records 2001 to 2020)

[cbm]

703.6mm for 2020 for me, would doubt my measurement but collaborated by other upper NI sites in the 700s only. Will 2021 be the splashback year? Let' see if this weekend sets the tone.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

55.7mm of rain recorded here for December.
611.7mm of rain recorded here for 2020, down on the average of 853.1mm since 2017.

[Nev]

Waiheke December 2020 Stats:
Highest T-max ... 27.5°C (12th)
Lowest T-min .... 10.6°C (2nd)
Mean T-max ...... 23.3°C
Mean T-min ...... 15.2°C
T-mean .......... 19.3°C
Rainfall ........ 11.3mm
2 wet days (1.0mm or more)

[Nev]

December 2020 was another very dry month overall, with generally mild temps and very sunny for most parts.

MetService December 2020 Summary - A little bit of everything, even snow!

December began with high pressure sat in the Tasman Sea, westerlies across South Island, and a ridge extending across Northland. This brought a very dry start to the month with temperatures way above average for the time of year for eastern areas and North Island north of Taupo. North Island between New Plymouth and Wellington were much wetter than average thanks to a few slow-moving fronts. This was broken up by a sharp southerly change on the 11th which brought summer snow to parts of South Island. Through mid-month the high moved overhead bringing a settled spell for all.

The weather became unsettled in the week leading up to Christmas, with a notably cold, wet spell for eastern South Island. Come Boxing Day thunderstorms brought hail and heavy rain to the upper South Island before bringing showers across North Island. A brief ridge brought a settled end to the year for most with cold, southerly showers for eastern North Island the main exception.

Dec 2020 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.png

Preliminary December 2020 figures for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Dec 2020 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       22.2  +0.6    15.0  +0.2    18.6  +0.4     26   30%    255  129%
Auckland Aero           22.5  +0.7    15.0  +0.1    18.7  +0.4     36   42%
Tauranga Aero           23.6  +1.4    13.9   0.0    18.8  +0.8     19   20%    n/a   n/a
Hamilton Aero           22.5  +0.3    10.7  -0.9    16.6  -0.3     35   33%
Hamilton, Ruakura       23.1  +1.1    11.4  -0.6    17.3  +0.3     19   19%    244  118%
Wellington, Kelburn     18.0  -0.6    12.4  +0.1    15.2  -0.2    101  122%    199   89%
Christchurch Aero       21.5  +0.4     9.7  -0.8    15.6  -0.2     62  133%    236  107%
Dunedin, Musselburgh    18.4  +1.1    10.6  +0.2    14.5  +0.7     67   84%    241  144%
Greymouth Aero          18.4  +0.2    11.0  -0.2    14.7   0.0    220   87%    184  110%

Edit: Added MS Summary.

[David]

Howick - December 2020

Summary
A very dry month, temperatures around average.

Stats:
Mean temp = 18.5C (+0.0C)
Mean daily high = 23.3C (+0.2C)
Mean daily low = 14.2C (-0.4C)
Highest temp = 26.8C (8th Dec)
Lowest temp = 9.2C (2nd Dec)
Total rainfall= 14.0mm (-79mm, or 15% of average - record lowest for December)
YTD rainfall = 781mm (-474mm, or 62% of average - record lowest by 244mm)

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

For Raukapuka, Geraldine
December's maximum was 31.3C on Monday the 7th.
December's minimum was 0.5C on Monday the 8th which included a light frost.
December's lowest maximum was 15.4C on Thursday the 17th.
December's highest minimum was 16.2C on Saturday the 19th.
Total rainfall was 55.7mm.