Weather of 2007

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David
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Weather of 2007

Unread post by David »

Summary of 2007, and Dec 2006.

The main features of the year's weather, as recorded in MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt's diary:


* December 06: Cold. The national average for December 2006 was 13.7C - beaten only by the 13.4C of December 2004, and matching the cold summer start to 1946.

* January 07
: Dull. Sunny Nelson recorded its lowest January sunshine on record. The month's highest temperature was 33.5C in Napier and Hastings.

* February: Dry in most areas. The exception was the Far North which was hit by a deluge which dumped 172mm on Kaikohe between February 5 and 7, stranding 500 people.

* March: Unsettled. Snow fell near Lake Rotoiti. Heavy rain triggered the collapse of Mt Ruapehu's crater lake on March 18, sending the long-awaited lahar down the mountain without incident.

Northland hit by 36 hours of extreme rainfall. The Kaeo River broke its banks, houses were washed away, and the approaches to the famed Kerikeri store were flooded.

Heavy rain also fell in Auckland, Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty and northern Gisborne. Insurance payouts for this storm totalled $12.5 million.

* April: Generally dry and anticyclonic.

* May: Warmest on record in both Australia and New Zealand.

* June: Two polar outbreaks heralded the start of winter. Power lines in Southland were toppled by the combined effects of snow and wind.

The second blast cut off Central Otago, forcing the opening of Queenstown's winter festival to be postponed. Reefton, on the West Coast, received 8cm of snow - its biggest fall since 1969.

* July:
The most damaging weather of the year, with Northland's flooding early in the month and Southland's at the end of the month. Taranaki tornadoes.

* August:
Relatively quiet by winter standards.

* September: Snowfalls on September 4 closed schools on the Canterbury Plains, but helped top up Otago and Canterbury ski fields which had been struggling to stay open.

* October: Windy and wild, particularly in central parts of the country. The worst of the winds occurred on October 23, causing damage and power cuts in Southland. Roofs were lifted in Hawkes Bay and trucks blown over on the region's roads.

The next day a freak wind gust in Christchurch swept a 12-year-old schoolgirl into the path of a bus, killing her.

* November: Lazy anticyclones produced extended dry periods over eastern and central districts. Hawkes Bay farmers started talking of drought conditions again.

It was not until June that the region's "drought of the century" finally broke. Direct losses to livestock farmers caused by parched conditions in the preceding 10 months have been estimated at around $300 million.

* December:
A month of contrasts, with the West Coast receiving more than a metre of rain in one week, while eastern and central parts remained parched.

From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/sto ... 478&pnum=0 (scroll down)
2007 Weather Photos: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/multimedia/im ... d=10482827
Last edited by David on Fri 28/12/2007 19:34, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wild Weather of 2007

Unread post by NZ Thunderstorm Soc »

Thanks for that. :)
I might compile a scenario of the boringist weather for 2007 which would possibly occupy several pages..YAWN...but then i might get bored :roll: so I won't bother...

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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

It's typical of such reports that they accentuate negatives and extremes. 2007 also gave many areas high sunshine and below-average rainfall, which some of us might see as a big positive. :?
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by David »

RWood wrote:It's typical of such reports that they accentuate negatives and extremes. 2007 also gave many areas high sunshine and below-average rainfall, which some of us might see as a big positive. :?
You'll have to wait until the stats and summary for 2007 RWood (I think NIWA does this?).
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by NZstorm »

Not a great year for interesting weather events. I would say the Taranaki tornadoes were the weather event of 2007.
They were waterspouts that made landfall.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by Storm Struck »

Yes It wasnt really such a busy year for extreme weather events, infact possibly the lowest so far this century since 2000.
Only day that sticks out to me in Canterbury was the two thunderstorms which swept through parts of Canterbury and Christchurch on October 24th.
All of the snow events never came to much during the winter, and there were no major windstorms etc either.
2008, maybe a leap year will give us good luck ;) .
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by janewaystv »

Auckland rain YTD is 887.8mm, average is 1094mm. Sunshine YTD is 2041.1 hrs, average is 2037hrs. Whangarei has recorded 1763mm YTD - around 875mm more than Auckland. It seems all places named in the NZ Herald weatherpage have recorded well above average sunshine. Tauranga with 2359 hrs and 2307 hrs for Gisborne. Sunshine for Dec. well below average TD for most of NZ except CHCH (188 hrs). Auckland on 138 hrs.

Dec 2007 - Wet in the far N with 242mm at Kaikohe (Avge is 88mm) and 176mm at Whangarei (85mm). 65.2mm for Auckland. Fairly dry in Auckland, Waitako, BOP, Taranaki with higher totals for the E of the NI as well as WGT and CHCH.

I really like the NZ Herald weather page - look at it everyday :mrgreen:
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

W'gton and Ch'ch will be neck-and-neck for sun total - W'gton had a big lead at end-Nov, dropped back this month.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by janewaystv »

Ending Thursday 27th December YTD sunshine for Chch at 2189 hrs and WGT on 2197 hrs.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

I reckon we're on about 2220-2225 at end today, 30th. May just stay ahead of Ch'ch but tomorrow's forecast isn't bright.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by David »

janewaystv wrote:Auckland rain YTD is 887.8mm
And with 1239.5mm here...
according to googlemaps the straight line distance between here (Howick west) and Auckland International Airport is 17.5km, so a difference of 352mm over 17.5km for the year is huge!! (20.3mm per km gradient) :shock:
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

Yes, with few significant hills at either end it's a biggish difference. With hills nearby of course there can be some steep gradients - eg in the Takaka district.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by David »

Dec 2007 a very wet month in Westland, with 1586mm at Cropp River from the 9th to 31st, average of 69mm/day over this period (don't have data from 1st to 8th).
Also in this time frame 1397mm at Waiho and 1331mm at Colliers Creek. Notably was 835mm in 4 days at Waiho.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

Wellington had 2231 hrs sunshine for 2007, highest of the main centres and the 3rd highest in the Kelburn record (1928+).
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

David wrote:Dec 2007 a very wet month in Westland, with 1586mm at Cropp River from the 9th to 31st, average of 69mm/day over this period (don't have data from 1st to 8th).
Also in this time frame 1397mm at Waiho and 1331mm at Colliers Creek. Notably was 835mm in 4 days at Waiho.
This is another instance of heavy W Coast/Fiordland rainfall in the early part of a La Nina, as mentioned in an older thread.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by David »

I see Tauranga came in on around 2400hrs for the year.
Wellington still achieved a greater deviation above the annual mean than Tauranga did.
Auckland finished up around 0.01% sunnier than average :lol: (despite the Airport recording only 888mm rain for the year). My rain gauge had recorded 888mm by the 29th August.
I wish they'd use Owairaka rain readings for the Ak obs, the airport must be the driest part of the region. The data mis-represents the rest of Auckland, whereas Owairaka has a higher total, closer to the regional mean.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

Blenheim had about 2566 hrs, Nelson 2514, and Tekapo may have sneaked in ahead of Nelson as well (2310 at end of November but December was fairly cloudy there I think).

Yes, with 1108 mm for 30-year mean Auckland Aero is a bit lighter than most of the greater city (though one Auck city site is given as 1092).
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by Ryan Thomas »

I agree Jasestrm, the only interesting weather event in Christchurch was that thunderstorm in October, was a real good watch from 2nd story window :). I really wanted some snow and yes I hope for a good year this year :)
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Re: Weather of 2007

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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by janewaystv »

Interesting that Invercargill's "record" sunshine got no mention at all :? :|
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by David »

janewaystv wrote:Interesting that Invercargill's "record" sunshine got no mention at all :? :|
Yes I was reading it just now, there wasn't any mention of annual sunshine total for Invercargill at all - you could email Niwa about this :-k
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by janewaystv »

Yeah, I'm doing it now ;), just sent the email, will let you know once I get a reply from them.
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

In'gill not mentioned directly, but the region is: Parts of the south and east, Bay of Plenty and Wellington recorded one of their sunniest years on record too.

It could be an oversight (re IVC), or perhaps they want to restrain comment in view of the fact that the EWS figure is somewhat lower. Of interest is that Tekapo's total is only slightly short of Blenheim's - but the Whakatane value is significantly distorted by some readings in the first few months only that are much too high to be credible (comparison with Tauranga etc.).
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by janewaystv »

Got a reply from NIWA thanking me for pointing out the omission, they'll amend the summary to include Invercargill's record sun :D .
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Re: Weather of 2007

Unread post by RWood »

Good stuff. I have also emailed NIWA, as listing the 3 sunniest places leaves Nelson in 4th and unmentioned - but I pointed out that the Whakatane total includes some very dubious values from the early months of the year - probably teething problems with calibration/misreading.
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