NZ Weather Forum

It was only a matter of time I guess. Chasing the tourist dollar.

http://www.odt.co.nz/article.php?refid= ... abb&sect=0

Coldest place in Dunedin? What absolute garbage!!!

If you take the day-night mean, ie the overall 24-hour daily mean, Musselburgh has a higher annual value than many other sites in Otago and Canterbury, because of its high night minima.

the octagan?
wont it suffer from urban heat island effect, especialy with all that concrete buildings, etc?

Dunedins Octagon and Musselburgh would have similar temperatures. They should use the Airport max temps for TV weather in Summer as it's often 5C warmer.

"...installs an air temperature censor"

Oops.

This sort of thing is starting to get quite silly?

I noticed a little Stevenson screen in front of the capital E building just on the harbour whilst in Wellington.. would that be used for Wellington's temperature in the media?

Well they said they were putting in artificial grass to be installed underneath. Concrete increases temperatures. Sorry but I don't think a piece of artificial grass glued to a concrete roof is going to the job.

And they say it's sheltered from the NW and SE winds and exposed to the predominant NE and SW winds. Shouldn't it be equally exposed to all of them?

the octagan?
wont it suffer from urban heat island effect, especialy with all that concrete buildings, etc?

Yes, but it is only 500m from the harbour and a cool seabreeze kicks in most summer days before 11am.

Are the MetService giving advice here? Or are they quite intent to make a buck by selling these stations to councils?

Do these council idiots think tourists spend their time glued to TV screens, watching the so-called temperature stakes? They form their impressions from experience.

Mean annual daily max/min, selected stations, 1961-90 (can't quote 1971-2000 here but the differentials would be the same) at some longterm sites:

Mean max Mean min Mean

Ashburton 17.4 6.0 11.7
Temuka 16.3 5.5 10.9
Timaru Gardens 16.3 6.6 11.4
Palmerston 15.8 4.7 10.3
Dunedin Aero 15.8 4.6 10.2
Musselburgh 14.7 7.5 11.1
Balclutha 15.5 5.5 10.3

Campared with some of the higher suburbs or the likes of Kaikorai Valley,
Musselburgh would be pretty warm.

They should take the temperature from my station. I'm in one of the warmest suburbs in town and the data is in a Stevenson Screen over real grass.

Even hereyou can see a spread of Dunedin sites and mine is warmer than two other suburbs (of course this is a changing map so it's probably different by the time you look at it, ha, the spread was 15°, 16° & 20°)

Mean annual daily max/min,

I would say it's the better maximum daily temp in Summer they are chasing.

Interesting.

I stayed at my Auntys place in Kew on the hill looking North, a N-Easter (no rain) was blowing and it sure was cold, however when a SWer was blowing with heavy rain, it wasnt that cold - probaly due to Kew being sheltered from the SW winds. I went to Musselburgh - it wasnt that cold really -light NE winds prevailed with the sun shining - felt quite warm in the sun (same applies to my auntys place in Kew).

I noticed that when I went out in Dunedin - it was quite still in some places and gusty in other places, Dunedin is a very hilly city, so some places get quite windy from a particular quarter whereas others dont and vice versca.

I found the day time temps in Dundein quite pleasant after coming from Sydney in the middle of very oppressive and trying weather, I loved the dryness, mild days and the coolness at night - made it much easier to sleep .

Dunedin Airport is a long way away from the city centre (About 30 to 40 minutes drive) and its suited on a flat plain so I would hardly call thier temps representitive for Dundein City.