General March Weather

[ndoa]

Niwa temperature map for the last 15days. Some warmer weather on the way to start April.

Does NIWA have a couple of dodgy thermometers on the coastal plains south of Christchurch.

[TonyT]

Niwa temperature map for the last 15days. Some warmer weather on the way to start April.

Does NIWA have a couple of dodgy thermometers on the coastal plains south of Christchurch.

Definitely some quality control issues there!

[Dean.]

Lovely day up in the Canterbury high country today above the low level cloud.

[Richard]

Niwa temperature map for the last 15days.

I would have thought someone must have noticed that faulty data and looked into it before releasing it to the public, it's clearly noticeable.

[Orion]

Blue dome skies both days for Warbirds Over Wanaka

[Richard]

Ended March with what has been a cooler than normal month with three subzero mornings. Rainfall of 16.4mm.

[Nev]

Does NIWA have a couple of dodgy thermometers on the coastal plains south of Christchurch.

The main culprit appears to be NIWA's Wakanui CWS, which looks to have been stuck on 27.3C since early March. Don't have data for their nearby Ashburton Council site yet, but MS's Ashburton Aero mean temp of 13.4C this March was 1.0C below normal.

These little blips in NIWA's computer generated maps aren't that uncommon and can sometimes take a month or two before they're rectified.

[Nev]

With more cooler air from the Southern Ocean, NZ's national average March temp ended up around 1°C below normal and our coldest March for 12 years. It was also another fairly dry month for most places, except for the Waikato/Taumarunui and Southland/Fiordland areas.

Mar 2024 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.png

Preliminary stats for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Mar 2024 Average Temps, Rainfall, Sunshine and departures from 1991-2020 normals ℅ NIWA

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

Auckland, Mangere       21.6  -1.0    13.5  -1.3    17.6  -1.1     67   75%    210  105%
Tauranga Aero           22.1  -0.8    12.8  -1.1    17.5  -1.0     53   56% 
Hamilton Aero *         20.8  -2.3     9.7  -1.4    15.3  -1.8    155  193%    207  105%
Wellington, Kelburn     18.6  -0.5    11.9  -0.8    15.2  -0.7     43   43%    221  108%
Christchurch Aero       19.4  -0.9     7.9  -1.6    13.7  -1.2     19   41%    213  112%
Dunedin, Musselburgh    16.8  -0.8     9.2  -1.0    13.0  -0.9     52   96%    197  120%
Greymouth Aero          18.0  -1.1    10.1  -1.0    14.0  -1.2    137   79%    186  104%

* Hamilton sunshine from Ruakura

[Simon Culling]

This graph was tweeted by NIWA a couple of days ago and shows the long run of warmer than average months NZ has had up until this March.

Graph copied from the linked tweet. Does anyone know the climate reference period the anomalies apply to?

https://twitter.com/NiwaWeather/status/ ... 3146646822

[Nev]

This graph was tweeted by NIWA a couple of days ago and shows the long run of warmer than average months NZ has had up until this March.

Graph copied from the linked tweet. Does anyone know the climate reference period the anomalies apply to?

https://twitter.com/NiwaWeather/status/ ... 3146646822

Good question. That graph looks to be based on 1981-2010 averages, rather than the 1991-2020 averages NIWA uses on all their other current graphics and reports. Bit misleading?