General March Weather

[Andy]

Mild again here this morning 20 degrees.

[Michael]

Change seems likely next week in the air,ECMWF and metview agreeing a forecasted low near cape reianga is likely/ready to move down the westcoast now,usually a slow moving low at this time of year in april signals the 1st change in patterns.

[spwill]

usually a slow moving low at this time of year in april signals the 1st change in patterns.

Yes, hopefully a change in pattern is on the way, El Nino has done a good job of keeping the sub tropical lows out so far.

[Richard]

NW arch showing some interesting cloud formation this evening

[David]

Excellent picture Richard, love the mammatus look it has to it

Here's a graph of a pressure spike here last night before midnight - at the same time there was a very brief light rain shower, and a brief increase in wind speed.

pressure_spike.png

I found this very interesting as other parts of Auckland didn't see this pressure spike. I'm certain it wasn't my station being silly as another one very close to me recorded the same thing.

[Manukau heads obs]

will be a sort of air mass boundary line (swinging out from the high (dew point boundary) went through where there was a pressure build up with that shower line or similar?

[Nev]

Here's NIWA's preliminary - March 2010 National Climate Summary.

National average mean-temp was 0.2°C above normal.

Severe soil moisture deficits continue in Northland, Auckland, South Canterbury and Otago. Dry soils have also developed in Waikato, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Taupo, and parts of Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay. A few March rainfall records fell around the Akld region (as did some daily max-temps).

On March 12, Baring Head, Wellington recorded its new all-time highest wind gust of 216.8 km/h since the site began in 1991. Temps in Wgtn also plummeted 10C in ten minutes that day (18.5C to 8.5C at Kelburn). This March was Kelburn's 4th-sunniest with 245 hrs recorded.

[spwill]

Tauranga had a mean temp of 19C, 260hrs sunshine, 17mm rainfall , no wonder it's New Zealands fastest growing city.

[melja]

alot of strange data in that report they say -9C was the min temp in arthurs pass on the 23rd lol what a joke

[Richard]

alot of strange data in that report they say -9C was the min temp in arthurs pass on the 23rd lol what a joke

That was on a morning that it was -4 where i am, but -9 doesn't sound right does it

[RWood]

Wellington's sun far ahead of the remaining main centres, Tauranga excepted.

BOP is on a roll at present with sunshine, with the current lack of their major cloud and rain-bearing scenarios.

-9C does sound a little low for Arthurs Pass, but I wouldn't be too dogmatic before checking past records.

[spwill]

Yes, Bay of Plenty is doing well out of El Nino but even without El Nino it is one of the sunnier NZ locations and warm.
Should be a good year for Kiwi Friut

[Manukau heads obs]

good year for wine too I would think?

[spwill]

good year for wine too I would think?

A Waiheke grower was telling me it will be an excellent year for them for wine quality as the vines were also light on friut this summer

[RWood]

Arthurs Pass (manual, 1978-2010) had a minimum reading of -8.5C in March 2005, though no value in April or May has been this low. The EWS records are only a few years old.

[Nev]

Yes, prior to the -8.5C at Arthurs Pass in 2005, the record used to be -4.4C set in 2004 and before that, -4.2C in 1983. The -9.0C last March does look like an error with the old station though. The new EWS, which has been running alongside the old manual WS for the last few years, only recorded a T-min of 6.6C on that morn of the 23rd.

Moot point, but I also had a look at Akld Aero's apparent '3rd-highest March daily max-temp'. That 27.4C recorded on Mar 1st should be the 4th-highest (along with 27.3C recorded on the 6th being 5th-highest). Akld Aero's highest March daily max-temp is 29.8C set in 1999, 2nd-highest is 27.7C and 3rd-highest is 27.6C, both set in 1990.

The Whangaparaoa record of 27.0C also looks a little suspect. Although cliflo's Whangaparaoa records only appear to go back 10 years, (somewhat incomplete) records for Tiri Tiri Lighthouse, just 300m away, recorded a rounded 28C twice in March 1998 and a rounded 27C several times since records its began in 1982.