Yes, Sydney has more sun and is warmer than Auckland, I come from Auckland myself. Auckland is more humid than Sydney.
Sydney does tend to have a bit more rain than Auckland, when it rains in Sydney, it can be quite heavy. Dont get many showery days here in Sydney. (There is a saying in Sydney, when it rains, it really rains and thats very true) and another saying:- it never rains but it pours.
Sydney and Wellington have 1 thing in common-a southerly.
When a southerly arrives in Sydney, it most of the time brings heavy rain/showers, gales and cold temperatures, the same happens in Wellington in a southerly airstream.
Sydney in August 1998, recorded its wettest August ever when 482.6mm fell on 17 days. A southerly event occurred during this month.
On the 6th when a southerly change swept the Sydney coast, 60.4mm fell, conditions were heavy rain and windy, on the 7th-104.6mm fell, conditions were heavy rain and southerly gales and on the 8th 136.0mm fell and conditions were heavy rain and gales. 301.0mm fell over 3 days in a southerly event.
As for comparing the weather between Australian and NZ cities, Melbourne and Christchurch have nearly the same yearly rainfall total, Melbournes yearly rainfall total is 650mm, similar's to Christchurch. (I lived in Christchurch for 4 years from 1990 to 1994.
Wellington and Tasmania share the same temperatures, after all Tasmania and Wellington rarely gets hot and has cool temperatures in the Summer. Wellington has far more rain than Hobart (Hobart gets 650mm per year).
I have obtained the sunshine averages for Sydney from the weather office, weather recording began in the 1850s.
Sunshine averages are:-
Jan 229.4
Feb 204.4
Mar 210.8
Apr 210.6
May 182.9
Jun 180.0
Jul 201.5
Aug 241.8
Sep 234.0
Oct 244.9
Nov 231.0
Dec 248.0
2619.3 hrs of sunshine per year.
As you can see, Winter/Spring are very sunny and Summer/Autumn are cloudier.
For example, when 349mm fell in February 2002, the sunshine total for that month was only 140 hours. Rain fell on 21 days (I can remember that month very well
)
Summer and Autumn are wet here, late Winter/Spring as well as December are dry months.
Rainfall Averages are:
Jan 103.4
Feb 116.1
Mar 132.1
Apr 127.8
May 122.8
Jun 129.8
Jul 98.9
Aug 82.2
Sep 69.5
Oct 77.2
Nov 83.3
Dec 78.3
1221.4mm of rain per year.
As we all know, sometimes rain doesnt always stick to the average, for example, October last year, 235 mm of rain fell, the 2nd wettest October on record (The wettest October on record is 285.0mm in 1987).
Happy reading
