Looking back - March 1969

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Mon 19/03/2007 11:07

After a wettish year for many parts of the country in 1968, by March 1969 some places were starting to get rather dry again. Christchurch had only 7.92" from August 1968 to March 1969, the lowest to date for any 8 months there. Oamaru in particular would later be prominent in rain deficiencies in the period 1969-1973. The SOI was neutral or in a weak El Nino state from late 1968 through all of 1969.

March 1969 was very different from the exceptional warmth and noticeable humidity of March 1968 - the latter's ex-tropical influences culminating in Giselle/Wahine. With high pressures to the north of NZ and below average values in the south, westerly flows were unusually frequent. It was one of the driest months on record in the North Island and the northeast of the South Island. Fiordland, South Westland and much of Southland and Otago were wetter than usual. Temperatures were above average in most parts, by 1.5C in Canterbury and Marlborough.

Sunshine was more than 40 hrs above normal in northern Northland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa and Marlborough. Exceptional values in Gisborne and Hawkes Bay resulted in totals over 290 hrs in Wairoa, Gisborne, Napier and Waipukurau [these totals ranged up to 82% of the possible, and aside from a couple of winter readings years earlier in Nelson and Blenheim and a few Queenstown readings with a very restricted horizon, these were the highest percentages attained in any month in NZ locations. Presumably winegrowers appreciated it!]

It was very cloudy in the far south with only 115 hrs at Invercargill.

New Plymouth had 110mm in rain in the early hours of the 1st, so that rainfall was counted in February's total.

Sources: NZ Met. Misc. pub. 107 (Climatological table, NZ Gazette) and NZ Met. Misc. pub. 109 (Meteorological Observations) - additional comments by the poster.

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Fri 23/03/2007 20:37

Sounds similar to this March, though we've had some pretty stormy and wintry weather during the middle of March 2007.

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Fri 23/03/2007 23:21

Yes, quite similar, though I gather we can expect highest pressures to be further south for the rest of the month with more easterly flow in the north?

janewaystv · Unread post by **janewaystv** » Sun 25/03/2007 16:59

Interesting reading there.

"The North Otago - South Canterbury drought was an outstanding feature of the 1969 weather in NZ".

This sentence was written in NZ's 1969 weather review. I like the way of how they used the words "Outstanding Feature"

March 1969 for Invercargill had 127mm. Wellington had 232 hours of sun and 23mm of rain. Auckland had 199 hrs and 10mm of rain.

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Sun 25/03/2007 18:59

Yes, they had some "up and down" rainfall over a few short years - Oamaru particularly with a very dry and quite sunny 1967 - it almost looked summery in July - heavy, ex-tropical rains in March & April 1968, then back to serious deficencies over 1969-1973.

No doubt eastern Oz could do with a rerun of those 1974-1980 circulation anomalies, well part of that period anyway. Wellington and Canterbury would be much less enthusiastic!

When you do get to the UK and get to grips with some of their climate data, it would be interesting to know if there are any unofficial/amateur sites that look sunnier than the known spots like Ventnor and Eastbourne. Also if there's any site that compares to the (very old) Ben Nevis data with its average of only about 700 hrs per annum. I have yet to read of any place with a more or less unobstructed horizon which trumps Campbell Is!