NZ Weather Forum

Razor wrote:John I urge you to steer clear of the moon...you'll get in trouble here

LOL... Been there, done that!

tvnz said ak had 5mm for the month,I do know there was a day here,we got more than that one morning,other than that very sparodic even last fridays low/front about only 2mm.

dogmelon wrote:There was a Pyrocumulus over a fire somewhere Darfield way or so but before I could get a photo it had disappeared.

There were a few pyrocumulus clouds today from burn-offs but as this is a February weather thread topic and as I can't be bother starting up a new topic of "Late Summer/Early Autumn Pyrocumulus clouds", and not appropriate for March General weather, I thought I would mention it hear instead of the March General weather thread.

JohnGaul
NZThS

Here's NIWA's preliminary February 2010 Climate Summary.

Interesting to see the West Coast towns of Westport, Greymouth and Milford Sound recording their highest ever Feb daily max of around 28-29C, as did Kerikeri in Northland with 30.4C.

Also record sunshine for Dunedin.

The 5mm (actually 4.6mm) was a record low for Akld Aero, as was Mangere's 8.6mm. I've always said that Akld Aero is not a very good representaion of rainfall for the Akld region. Shame they closed more central Owairaka. I see both Brian and Ricky managed 14mm. Still extremely low though.

NIWA give Auckland's mean max for feb as 25.5C and mean min as 17.8C. That works out to be a mean temperature of 21.7C. Yet they say Tauranga was the warmest location in NZ with a mean temp of 21.2C! Looks to me like Auckland was the warmest.

NZstorm wrote:NIWA give Auckland's mean max for feb as 25.5C and mean min as 17.8C. That works out to be a mean temperature of 21.7C. Yet they say Tauranga was the warmest location in NZ with a mean temp of 21.2C! Looks to me like Auckland was the warmest.

NIWA's figures for Akld are based on Mangere, i.e. T-max 24.2C, T-min 17.0C = T-mean 20.6C (Mangere generally reads a little lower than the Akld Aero).

http://www.niwa.co.nz/education-and-tra ... eanairtemp
Long term Auckland is warmer than Tauranga however with the monthly summaries Tauranga has usually been warmer than Auckland, July 09 was the last time Auckland was warmer, El Nino might be to blame.

Interesting that both Hamilton and Tauranga were 1.7C above normal while Auckland was only 0.7C above normal!

Here's an interesting article by Metservice about the humidity in February
http://blog.metservice.com/2010/03/friz ... y-weather/

NZstorm wrote:Interesting that both Hamilton and Tauranga were 1.7C above normal while Auckland was only 0.7C above normal!

What station are they taking that off?
The Ruakura Station or the AWS?
I suspect there will be a difference between the 2. The Ruakura station is more likely to reflect Hamiltons actual Temperatures as that is actually in "Hamilton".
The AWS is quite a bit out of Hamilton itself and often that will show a lower temperature as its located in a more exposed place.

Temps and rainfall are taken from Hamilton Aero and sunshine from Ruakura.

Hamilton aero is Ohaupo isnt it,as Hamilton you come down hill from the south as you can see the city(in a valley) not too far from Ohaupo.

Its approx 5 ks from Ohapo.
If you have a look at the signs of hamilton eg:"welcome" and "farewell", it cuts off just at the end of Ohapo.
If they want a more proper representation of Hamilton s temperature etc they should be using the Ruakura Station.
Anyway back on topic, LOL
Partly Cloudy this arvo with a cooler high temp as of late.

I think NIWA try to use sites that are more representative of the general region, rather than the actual centres themselves. They're also less likely to be affected by the urban-heat-island-effect when comparing with long-term records.

David wrote:Here's an interesting article by Metservice about the humidity in February
http://blog.metservice.com/2010/03/friz ... y-weather/

Always good to read something with a bit of clout. I like his focus on dewpoints (which he has covered a few times before), and I almost detect some frustration in his having to repeatedly go over the fact that relative humidity does not matter that much by itself.
But I'm sure the media will continue next summer with their tedious "Auckland had 97% humidity last night!!!!!" articles.

But I'm sure the media will continue next summer with their tedious "Auckland had 97% humidity last night!!!!!" articles.

People know what is meant by '97% humidity' so its a good term for the media to use.

97% humidity will generally be an uncomfortable humidity level in Auckland (given our warm summer tempertures) but not so for much of NZ.