NZ/Aust Weather Comparisons

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janewaystv
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NZ/Aust Weather Comparisons

Unread post by janewaystv »

Thought it would be good to start a topic where we can compare Oz and NZ weather notes.

Jan-Mar 1978 was very dry/sunny in NZ with very settled weather?

Sydney during this period saw Jan and March very unsettled with rainfall totals more than 200% above avge. Sunshine for Jan was the 3rd cloudiest on record with 170 hrs.

Feb on the other hand (like NZ) was very dry with only 10mm and 255 hrs of sun (2nd sunniest Feb on record) and a mean temp of 24.3oC making this the hottest Feb on record (overtaken by 24.9oC in Feb 1998).
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Re: NZ/Aust Weather Comparations

Unread post by Michael »

Yes its the best summer I can remember,started lat Nov 77 to early April 1978.Long overdue :D
janewaystv wrote:Thought it would be good to start a topic where we can compare Oz and NZ weather notes.

Jan-Mar 1978 was very dry/sunny in NZ with very settled weather?

Sydney during this period saw Jan and March very unsettled with rainfall totals more than 200% above avge. Sunshine for Jan was the 3rd cloudiest on record with 170 hrs.

Feb on the other hand (like NZ) was very dry with only 10mm and 255 hrs of sun (2nd sunniest Feb on record) and a mean temp of 24.3oC making this the hottest Feb on record (overtaken by 24.9oC in Feb 1998).
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Unread post by RWood »

True - though in an older post I pointed out that the southern half of NZ tokk a while to get started in terms of temperatures. The sunniest Oct-March period for W'gton was 1977-1978.

For NZ as a whole though, with "no contest", the best summer (Dec-Feb) would have to be 1934-1935, and also the best "warm half" (Nov-Apr)

{"Best" in the holidaymaker sense, that is}.
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Unread post by RWood »

For an example of a monthly or seasonal contrast between Sydney, at least, and a substantial part of NZ, take January 1965 (cool in Sydney- very warm in NZ and sunny in the North Island, with 304 hrs at W'gton which was also close to its warmest-ever January). Persistent NE flow over NZ.
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Unread post by janewaystv »

Yes thats correct January 1965 (mean temp was 20.1oC) was the 2nd coldest on record (still is to this day) with persistant S-SE winds, dry than normal (37mm) and near average sunshine (217 hrs).
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Unread post by janewaystv »

March 1988 saw Cyclone Bola lash NZ, with record rains in the east of the NI, here in Sydney, a dry month (85mm), next month (April) saw Syd having 507mm (3rd wettest on record) with persistant E winds and rain on 20 days with the cloudiest April on record (111 hrs).

August 1995 saw no rainfall being recorded at all (driest Aug on record) then September saw 227mm falling-4th wettest on record-quite a big difference there.

I read that 1977 was a cold, wet year for places exposed to the south in NZ, any more details?

Auckland in 1909 had no rain at all for Feb, as did Wellington in Dec 1916. Sydneys one is August 1995 (0.0mm), previous being October 1988 (0.6mm, same for August 1885 as well).

What is the highest sunshine total in a month for NZ? Sydney's one is December last year with 323 hours.

Jan 1964 for Sydney was very dry with 18mm and very sunny (270 hrs) with persistant W winds, apparently this was the case for NZ too?
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Unread post by RWood »

janewaystv wrote:March 1988 saw Cyclone Bola lash NZ, with record rains in the east of the NI, here in Sydney, a dry month (85mm), next month (April) saw Syd having 507mm (3rd wettest on record) with persistant E winds and rain on 20 days with the cloudiest April on record (111 hrs).

August 1995 saw no rainfall being recorded at all (driest Aug on record) then September saw 227mm falling-4th wettest on record-quite a big difference there.

I read that 1977 was a cold, wet year for places exposed to the south in NZ, any more details?

Auckland in 1909 had no rain at all for Feb, as did Wellington in Dec 1916. Sydneys one is August 1995 (0.0mm), previous being October 1988 (0.6mm, same for August 1885 as well).

What is the highest sunshine total in a month for NZ? Sydney's one is December last year with 323 hours.

Jan 1964 for Sydney was very dry with 18mm and very sunny (270 hrs) with persistant W winds, apparently this was the case for NZ too?
That's a bit of a mouthful - here goes.

April 1988 featured some of the highest mean MSLPs on record in NZ, and much dryness, which extended back to mid-March in many places (anticyclonic or anticyclonic-SW). Northern, western and inland parts of the SI were exceptionally sunny.

August 1995 here was not too far from normal; September was rather cloudy and unsettled in most parts.

1977 was a very cold year in NZ, as was 1976. But 1976 was cloudier and a bit drier - 1977 was very wet in many eastern places. Kelburn had a record 1744mm of rain but still 2033 hrs' sun. September was probably the worst for Wellington for about a century - wet, showery, cold and very windy. But the folloing summer was great, as described earlier. 1977 was quite sunny in western places and BOP.

Highest sun for NZ is 335 hrs at Blenheim, Jan 1957 (76% possible), also at Taupo, Jan 1950. Other months have performed relatively better:

Riwaka about 82% possible in Feb 1973 (292 hrs)
Gisborne 82% possible March 1969 (298 hrs)
Blenheim 80% possible June 1959 (205 hrs)
Blenheim 84% (231), Nelson 83% (227) July 1952

January 1964 was windy and unsettled with very low MSLPs. Cool in most of NZ, near normal in the east. Very dry in most of NI and N & E of SI plus Central Otago; wet in west of SI and Southland. Very cloudy in Westland, Southland and Otago; sunny in the east from Marlborough north
and in much of the NI. Analogous to January 1983 in many respects.

1964 was an odd year for the South Island in that it was a very dry year for most, especially Central Otago (Alex. only 8.29 in, and only 6.59 for 11/63-10/64), yet it was also very cloudy for much of the island as well.
Power shortages occurred despite a mild winter - I can remember Dundedin streets being blacked out at night for a long period of time.
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Unread post by RWood »

Here's some numbers I promised - annual rainfall at Kelburn, Wellington,
for 1928-2005 inclusive:

1402
1206
971
1003
987
981
1101
1035
1443
867
1478
1180
1131
1610
1287
1467
1422
1225
1234
1313
1132
1098
1135
1159
1218
1480
1245
1487
1556
1236
1076
1038
1200
1038
1589
1043
1167
1486
1445
1249
1364
934
1246
1230
1029
1039
1706
1372
1461
1744
1321
1643
1317
1245
925
1303
1054
1298
1236
1049
950
1145
1304
1244
1301
1164
1017
1340
1266
1155
1363
1273
994
1053
1250
1040
1446
975

Mean is 1233.5. The last value is for a new site (EWS) in virtually the same spot as the old one, but its readings may be a little higher than those of its predecessor.

I expect there would little or no correlation with readings from a Sydney site...
Manukau heads obs
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Unread post by Manukau heads obs »

1979 was as our wettest year here....did that show up anywhere in the research?
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RWood
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Unread post by RWood »

Haven't got a summary to hand, but it was a wet year in many places (Kelburn 1643 mm) and cloudier than usual in most parts of the country. For the west of the SI and some other parts it was the start of a 5-year run that was very wet overall. But remember that Auckland and various other places were much wetter in 1956 - covered in some older posts.
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Unread post by janewaystv »

Very interesting :) .

Akl had 1917mm in 1956 - spread out over the year, whereas Sydney, had 1712mm with majority of rain falling in 3 months alone:- (565mm for Feb-wettest Feb at the time, 368mm for March and 228mm for June-all with winds prevailing from the NE-E. All other months had below avge rains.

For a martime country-335 hours of sunshine is quite high-Sydney (Sunshine readings began in 1931 at Observatory Hill site) didnt get past the 300 hour mark until Dec 1976 with 307 hours.

WGT had heavy rains in Dec 1976 that lead to severe flooding in the Hutt Valley?

1979 saw Auckland (Albert Park) having 1648mm, probaly one of the wettest years?
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Unread post by Manukau heads obs »

ah, ok, records i have (from my dad) only went back to 1957....
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janewaystv
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Unread post by janewaystv »

Interesting that WGT and Sydney have same mean rainfall of 1220-1230mm.

1982-Syd had 839mm, WGT had 925mm-both El Nino years.

2000-Syd had 822mm, WGT had 994mm

2005-Syd had 816mm, WGT had 975mm

See how El Nino affects Syd and WGT in most same years as those totals were well below average.
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Unread post by RWood »

janewaystv wrote:Very interesting :) .

Akl had 1917mm in 1956 - spread out over the year, whereas Sydney, had 1712mm with majority of rain falling in 3 months alone:- (565mm for Feb-wettest Feb at the time, 368mm for March and 228mm for June-all with winds prevailing from the NE-E. All other months had below avge rains.

For a martime country-335 hours of sunshine is quite high-Sydney (Sunshine readings began in 1931 at Observatory Hill site) didnt get past the 300 hour mark until Dec 1976 with 307 hours.

WGT had heavy rains in Dec 1976 that lead to severe flooding in the Hutt Valley?

1979 saw Auckland (Albert Park) having 1648mm, probaly one of the wettest years?
Yes, 335 isn't bad. Will give you some low values later - some are very low indeed.

Dec 1976 (paraphrasing from Met. Obs., not trusting to memory this time):

High frequency of westerly winds; pressures below normal, increasingly so towards the south. Rainfall above average over most of NZ. Exceptionally heavy rainfalls of up to 300mm in W'gton-Hutt on 20th (about 150mm at Kelburn; up to 350mm on a convergence line along the western Hutt hills [I stood at a bus stop watching rain bounce of the pavements, my ticket turning to mush]). Sunshine surplus of 25-75 hrs about and north of Auckland, but deficits of up to 75 hrs in W'gton, South Canty, Otago and Westland - Wellington's 174 was a record low at the time.

Don't know where AK's 1648 ranks, but in top 3-4 I would guess.
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Unread post by RWood »

janewaystv wrote:Interesting that WGT and Sydney have same mean rainfall of 1220-1230mm.

1982-Syd had 839mm, WGT had 925mm-both El Nino years.

2000-Syd had 822mm, WGT had 994mm

2005-Syd had 816mm, WGT had 975mm

See how El Nino affects Syd and WGT in most same years as those totals were well below average.
I think W'gton's El Nino year rainfalls are a bit equivocal - eg 1983 was quite wet. It is certain that Hokitika has a strong positive rainfall - NINO correlation, and Napier a strong negative one.

Not to pick on certain places, but here are some low sunshine values for various months:

Jan 1970 - Dunedin 114 (25% possible) - there are other examples of low totals from places in coastal S Canty, coastal Otago, Southland and Westland.

Feb 1974 - Timaru 70 (19% possible)
Mar 1979 - Timaru 59 (16% possible)
Apr 1949 - In'gill 54 (16% possible)
May 1940 - In'gill 46 (17% possible)
Jun 1987 - Taumaranui 34 (13% possible)
July 1964 - similar to June for Taumaranui, Ohakune
Sep 1980 - Greymouth 59 (18% possible)
Oct 1988 - Greymouth 57 (15% possible)
Dec 1959 - Waimate 60 (13% possible)
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Unread post by RWood »

Here are the sun values for Kelburn, 1928+ (there are older sites):

Mean is 2054.6 (1928-2005). Last 30 yeasr is about 2082.

2120
2033
2097
2205
2055
2126
2158
2147
1985
2080
1960
2080
2101
1901
1893
2109
2002
1975
2112
2077
2072
2118
2028
1927
1877
1798
1942
1994
1944
2059
2116
2076
1971
2198
2163
2036
2066
2047
1872
2028
2016
2008
1992
2102
2054
2007
2064
2008
1918
2034
2156
1813
1916
1993
2125
1960
2129
2230
2221
2159
2031
2073
2074
2055
1788
2015
2245
2105
2062
2168
2087
2174
2172
2094
2105
2272
2073
2211
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Re: NZ/Aust Weather Comparations

Unread post by RWood »

janewaystv wrote:Thought it would be good to start a topic where we can compare Oz and NZ weather notes.
Trying to post an attachment of an Excel workbook that might interest you...
first part (76KB)
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
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Unread post by RWood »

Here's the rest of it.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
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Unread post by janewaystv »

Thanks for that RWood :D

In 1992 for WGT had 1788 hrs-cloudiest year on record, interesting bec Syd in 1992 had its cloudiest year since 1974 (2336 hrs) with 2343 hrs, as well as the coldest year (mean temp of 17.7oC) since 1970 (17.7oC was the mean).
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Unread post by RWood »

Those Sydney 1974 and 1992 values make Sydney's 1950 value look very low. Were there many values between 1950's and those later ones?
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Unread post by janewaystv »

1950-1963 very wet and cloudy for Syd. Sunshine failed to reach the yearly average for 13 years running and rainfall (except 1957) was well above average, with some totals exceeding 1500m.

1964 as you said before was very dry in NZ SI esp Alexandra (167mm or something like that), that reminds me of SA which is the driest state in Oz. Its very remarkable that Alexandra can record so little rain yet just over the mountains (Westland/Fiordland) they can record much, much more rain, I think its amazing, u know what I mean?
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Unread post by RWood »

Yes, the ratio beteeen Tekapo (600mm) and catchments above Franz Josef (prob. 13000+ mm , no data) is huge, and the distance is not very great.

Yet as I commented for 1964, it was odd that parts of the SI didn't get more rain. Perhaps the sytems targeting NZ had less energy. Milford had only average rainfall in the same year In'gill had its lowets totla of sun to date.
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Unread post by janewaystv »

1964 in Syd was remarkable for 4th wettest June with 408mm, and 13th driest July with 10mm.
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Unread post by RWood »

janewaystv wrote:1950-1963 very wet and cloudy for Syd. Sunshine failed to reach the yearly average for 13 years running and rainfall (except 1957) was well above average, with some totals exceeding 1500m.

1964 as you said before was very dry in NZ SI esp Alexandra (167mm or something like that), that reminds me of SA which is the driest state in Oz. Its very remarkable that Alexandra can record so little rain yet just over the mountains (Westland/Fiordland) they can record much, much more rain, I think its amazing, u know what I mean?
Actually June 1964 found Alex. getting only 0.09" of rain, but also only 66 hrs' sun (fogs). 1951-1956 was a very cloudy period for the North Island, and 1951-1953 pretty cloudy for the South Island.
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Unread post by RWood »

I suggest that sometime if you wanted to put Sydney's monthly sun totals in a spreadsheet and posted the attachment, I could put them through my application which generates quite nice graphs (like the sample I sent). Just a notion.
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