Kelburn summer data

[RWood]

I would not mind a higher annual total, just as long has we had sunshine in between. The eternal cloud (which actually only lasts 3days to a week at a time) can be annoying at times - as with drizzle instead of proper rain.

My mother thinks summers were sunnier and drier when she was a kid than they are now - don't know if thats such a bad thing though. My grandfather also thinks thunder occurs more frequently in recent years than they did when he was younger - but to prove these opinions right or wrong I'd have to download a heap of climate data and then process it, but I don't really want to.

This and what follows really belongs in another thread now, but here goes anyway. I looked at summer data for Kelburn here, for seasons 1928-2006 (I don't have the confirmed 2007 yet). With the amount of interyear variation, I then calculated 5-year values for various items, thus giving me 75 5-year "summer spans" raning from 1982-1932 to 2002-2006. Without trying to look at anmy trends, I just ranked the items (leaving out overlaps that didn't essentailly alter the overall results).

Mean temps:

Warmest: 1985-89,1995-99,1971-75
Coolest: 1928-32,1943-47,1949-53

Total sunshine:

Sunniest: 1961-65,1983-87,1997-2001
Cloudiest: 1952-56,1966-70,1976-80

Total rainfall:

Driest: 1997-2001,1981-85,1970-74
Wettest: 1936-40,2002-06,1976-80

Number of raindays:

Least rainy: 1970-74,1997-2001,1981-85
Most rainy: 1963-67,2002-06,1991-95

Average pressures:

Highest: 1970-74,1995-99,1959-63
Lowest: 1939-43,1929-33,2002-06

Overall ratings using my (purely subjective of course) weighting formula:

Best: 1985-89,1997-2001,1971-75
Worst: 1929-33, 1952-56,1939-43

[TokWW]

Interesting looking at the intersections of like conditions - eg (just a typical example below), and often only one of a set was an intersection with another set of like conditions.

warmest 1985-89
sunniest 1983-87 [85, 86, 87]
driest 1981-85 [83, 84, 85]
Best 1985-89 [85]

Wherein we could say that 1985 was an exceptionally summery year without even knowing the data!!

and for the "good weather" characteristics (as above), there was never an intersection with the "bad" characteristics... understandable of course.

[sw_windbow]

I have fond memories of the mid-80s summers and my early school holidays. We used to be able to swim sedately all day in the sea. For the past few summers you only go into the sea on a dare.

[RWood]

The appearance of 2002-06 in the "bad" rain lists reflects mainly the wet cloudy summers of 2001/02 and 2003/04.

There was a good run of summers here with all of the ones from 84/85 to 88/89 scoring pretty well overall, and even 83/84 was reasonably sunny though very cool.

The top 10 single summers on my criteria were 1934/5, 1998/9, 1986/7, 1984/5, 1961/2, 1981/2, 2000/1, 1974/5, 1988/9 and 2005/6.

The worst were 1952/3, 1975/6, 1976/7, 2001/2, 2003/4, 1957/8, 1944/5, 1929/30, 1966/7, 1992/3.

(86/7 wasn't quite so obvious from the combined lists, but I didn't show overlapping entries that were inferior to ones they were overlapping with). My combination criteria are of course subjective with the rain factors having a slightly lower weighting than sun and temp, but for my almost 40 years of living here the results agree with my own perceptions and recollections, at least).

[Manukau heads obs]

just shows how people only remember good things....
Wellington would get a better summer in those late eighties El nino summers...than would Northland..,.which would have been wetter and cloudier (but wamer) for those la nina summers of the late eighties?

[TonyT]

There has been research published which shows that all generations (from young to really old) believe the weather was "better" when they were children. The effect gets greater the older you get. Its all about selective memory and a psychological need to romanticise your childhood. The "weather was better when I was young" trait is found all over the world.

[RWood]

just shows how people only remember good things....
Wellington would get a better summer in those late eighties El nino summers...than would Northland..,.which would have been wetter and cloudier (but wamer) for those la nina summers of the late eighties?

The La Nina standout you're thinking of would be 1988/89, which was wet, cloudy and humid in places like Northland and BOP, and dry and sunny with very light winds in Manwatu/Wellington and much of the South Island (though in the very NE-oriented January Nelson was cloudy).

[Michael]

I remember the Wellington of old,going there a lot,misty,grey windy and cold and earthquakes,nothing to do with weather and hearing on the radio.In Wanganui in the 70s where I could get 2ZB etc during the daytime northerlies gusty with drizzle all through the 70s,abating slowly turning S rising to gale and with rain and hail and cold wheres where I lived it was OK.Now days its not like that so much.

[RWood]

Although things have improved, if it was typically as bad then as you imply then the stats would have looked like those of Campbell Island, or at least the Chathams - and they didn't. Seasons like the extended summers of 1974/75 or 1961/62 for example, would have featured very little such weather. As always of course, when such weather strikes most people promptly forget whatever it's been like before...