Past December weather

Archive of NZ Weather & Climate
Forum rules
These topics are a read-only archive and may be subject to out-of-date information.

For today's weather discussion head to: New Zealand Weather & Climate
RWood
Posts: 3745
Joined: Sat 24/01/2004 16:56
Location: Wellington
Has thanked: 188 times
Been thanked: 123 times

Past December weather

Unread post by RWood »

David wrote: December might be trash again but we'll have to wait. My family never takes a holiday in December, these last few years December has been a replica of October's weather and is not even warm enough to enjoy a pleasant swim. During this next lot of holidays beginning 4 Dec for me and going to about 8 Feb or something like that I'm going up north for about 4 days, and of course in late January as to avoid a likelihood of inclement weather that is now so frequent in the first half of our summers. Nonetheless March seems to make up for our late summers, often sharing the same average temperature as January (well in recent years anyway).
December 2005 was the warmest since 1934.
jamie
Posts: 5907
Joined: Fri 25/02/2011 21:35
Location: Hamilton NZ
Has thanked: 22 times
Been thanked: 273 times
Contact:

Re: Stable weather to end October

Unread post by jamie »

i was just thinking how can that be. i dont remember a hot december for about the last 6 years.. but then i thought i remember december pretty much based on one day and thats xmas day... and its been a while since we have had a good xmas day. so that would explain why i dont see 2005 being the warmest
User avatar
NZstorm
Posts: 11333
Joined: Mon 10/03/2003 19:38
Location: Grey Lynn, Auckland
Has thanked: 342 times
Been thanked: 361 times

Re: Stable weather to end October

Unread post by NZstorm »

Yes December 2005 was a warm one. But for Auckland it was the warmest since 1984. The Decembers of 2004 and 2006 were bizzare with unusually low temps, in both those Decembers the temperatures were 2.5C below normal. Its very unlikely we will get Decembers that cold again in the foreseeable future.
User avatar
David
Posts: 7578
Joined: Sat 18/08/2007 21:02
Location: Howick, Auckland
Has thanked: 416 times
Been thanked: 825 times
Contact:

Re: Stable weather to end October

Unread post by David »

Dec 2001: extremely low sunshine hours in many places. Whakatane 135, Taumarunui 111, Kelburn 153 are some places that recorded record lowest sunshine hours. Was very wet in many places, New Plymouth has 346mm ans Taumarunui 308mm. Mean temperatures were 1-2C warmer in many centres.

Dec 2002: Drier in many areas with 50-75% of normal rainfall. Near average temperatures. Sunshine above average in the east and below average in the west of the NI.

Dec 2003: Canterbury had record low rainfall (1mm at Chch airport). Christchurch Garden’s rainfall was the lowest for December in more than 140 years of measurement. Very sunny in the east of the South Island, much cloudier in the north and west of the North Island. Mean temperatures were at least 1.0°C above average in parts of Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, and Marlborough.

Dec 2004: Dec 2004 was the fifth coldest on record overall since reliable temperature measurements were established in 1853, and the coldest since 1945. Rather cloudy in many areas. Above average rainfall in the east.

Dec 2005: Wet in the north and west of the North Island, especially Northland, western Bay of Plenty, and Wanganui; below normal in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough. Well above average temperatures in most places, third warmest December on record. Sunshine was normal or below normal throughout New Zealand.

Dec 2006: One of the coldest Decembers in the last sixty years. Sunnier than normal in the north of both islands. Rainfall was well below normal in the north of both islands; above normal in the east, especially Canterbury.

So for Auckland then, 4/6 Decembers have been below average sunshine, 2/6 wetter than normal, 2/6 colder than normal, with 3/6 warmer than normal. So it appears Rwood is correct, in earlier saying that people remember certain aspects of the weather. Because we had 2 cold Decembers we may think all Decembers are cooler now, we remember how cloudy one month was, etc.
Image
Locked