NZ Droughts

[janewaystv]

Provided to me by a mate.

Summer 1907/1908:- Very severe in parts of Hawkes Bay, Nelson, Marlborough and mid Canterbury. 59 days of no rain at Motueka. 20mm in 81 days at Christchurch. Broken by heavy rains in March.

November 1916 – March 1917:- Severe in Wanganui, Nelson and parts of Marlborough. 17mm in 75 days at Wanganui. 58 days of no rain at Farewell Spit (Nelson region).

Summer/Autumn 1919:- Most severe in BOP, Taupo, parts of South Canterbury/North Otago. 14mm in 65 days at Oamaru.

December 1927 – January 1928:- Very severe over much of the NI especially Auckland & Taranaki, also over Nelson & parts of Marlborough, many locations had their driest January on record. 64 days of no rain at East Cape. 17mm in 69 days at Farewell Spit. Broken by heavy rains in May.

December 1938 – March 1939:- Severe in parts of Nelson and Marlborough, some locations recorded their driest March on record. 34mm in 150 days at Marshland (Blenheim).

October 1945 – February 1946:- Severe in parts of Northland, Auckland, Taupo and Hawkes Bay & the driest in 30 years. Numerous forest/scrub fires. No rain for 34 days at Taupo & Napier. 28mm in 122 days at Napier.

January – April 1955:- Driest January over the NI since 1928 with Waikato’s one running until April. Broken by heavy rains February/March.

Spring 1955/Summer 1955/1956:- Worst in Canterbury’s history & serious in Otago/Southland. The 7 month rainfall period from September 1955 to March 1956 over parts of Central Otago & inland South Canterbury was the lowest in 60 years of records

Summer 1957:- Very severe over many parts of the NI. 35 days of no rain at Kaingoroa, 28 days of no rain at Whangarei and 40 days of no rain at New Plymouth.

September 1958 – March 1959:- Very serious over much of NZ by October. Awatere Valley (Marlborough) still affected in March.

Summer 1964:- Severe in Northland after many months of below average rainfalls.

June – November 1969:- Very severe over North Otago/South Canterbury. 15mm in 92 days at Oamaru. Broken by heavy rains in December.

January – March 1978. One of the most severe droughts ever experienced over the country. Very severe over Northland, Auckland, Waikato, BOP, Taranaki, Southern HB, Manawatu, Wairapara, Nelson, Marlborough and South Canterbury. Blenheim Aero recorded no rain during January, 0.1mm at Motueka over the same period.

March 1988 – April 1989:- Severe in the east of the SI with South Canterbury/North Otago being the worst affected areas, as the drought spread north, Mid/North Canterbury became the worst affected area. Broken by heavy rains in late April.

[RWood]

Lots of nice holiday weather among that lot - eg early 1978.

The large area affected for Nov 2000 (approx) - Sep 2001, particularly the central 1/3 of the country, was very hard hit. Around Wellington (eg) many native plant species were in a very dire state by the end of the September. October rains were just in time. Nelson was also hard-hit with record sun for a topup. 2 months later backpackers and others in Nelson were complaining about the rain!

[Michael]

The 1978 drought was memorable to me,it was the best summer in my memory,though January and early Feb has = it,the 1978 one will be hard to beat.

[RWood]

There have been some pretty drastic recoveries from dry spells - "sloshbacks" might be a good name? After the 1945/46 episode Whangarei turned soggy with 1340 mm for Apr-July, and the wettest year in the Aero record (1937-present).

In 1978, April-September was wet over a large part of the country.

[janewaystv]

Addendum to the "Drought List"

January - February 1909 - Most severe in Northland & Auckland & western areas of the NI. Auckland recorded 0.0mm and Kaitaia 1.8mm during February.

December 1916 - Cook Strait region - many locations recorded no rain at all, Wellington recorded 0.0mm.

October - December 1961 - Southern half of the NI including Hawkes Bay, Marlborough & Canterbury. Many places had the lowest 3 month rainfall totals (Oct-Dec) in 50 years. Marshlands (Blenheim) had 24.1mm, Hastings 31.5mm, Christchurch 35.6mm, Palmerston North & Ashburton 68.6mm, Wellington 101.6mm and New Plymouth 152.4mm.

1993/1994 - Very dry in the north of the NI & BOP & the east of the NI (especially 1994).

[janewaystv]

1978's drought certainly ended in April with a bang , at Spotswood (Canterbury) for April, the rain total was more than 500% above the average with Marlborough, Kaikorua and Canterbury having more than 200% - 300% above. For Canterbury/Otago, the 6 month period from April - October was a very wet period with excesses above the averages.

[janewaystv]

Re 1978's Summer being the best - December 1977 was cold - as much as 1oC below average with higher than normal rainfalls especially in Poverty Bay, Wellington, Marlborough and parts of Canterbury/Otago, in spite of this it was on the whole a bit more sunnier.

I have an article with me, given to me by a mate from Auckland, in the past 50 years, best "Summers" for Auckland goes to the years of 1956/1957, 1961/1962, 1969/1970, 1973/1974, 1986/1987, 1990/1991 and 1997/1998.

Ghastliest Summers goes to 1958/1959 and 1979/1980.

[RWood]

He should definitely have put in 1952/3 - just as dull as 1958/9, and would have been much colder. And 1979/80 had a sunny December, with about a dozen summers duller than it overall. Don't think 1990/1 deserves to be with the rest of that list - quite warm but not very sunny in Auck-Waikato (better in BOP).

The reason 1977/78 gets good marks is that warm sunny weather continued into March and about 10 days of April before big rains came. November 1977 was also a sunny "prefix" though not particularly warm.

[janewaystv]

The article was printed in Jan. 2005 & using data from NIWA for the previous 50 years only, so 1952/1953 isn't included.

1979/1980 Summer comment isn't incorrect for Dec but true for Jan/Feb especially the latter.

1990/1991 Summer - 2 different sites recording different sunshine totals but all reached/exceeded the 200 hr mark - Dec. 1990 (AKL Aero with 233 hrs/Mangere 219 hrs), Jan. 1991 (AKL Aero with 203 hrs/Mangere 200 hrs) & Feb. 1991 for AKL Aero (222 hrs/Mangere with 213 hrs) - reasonable amounts.

(From NZ's Weather Summary November 1977 - shortened version)

Most of NZ had cold, dry sunny weather with occasional warm fine spells. Rainfall was above normal in Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu, Wellington and Marlborough with eastern areas of both islands having below average rainfalls. Only Southland had less sunshine than normal.

[RWood]

I'd need to collect more data - don't have it in readily summarised form - to substantiate my comment about 1979/80 - still doubtful that it would be one of the worst 2. But that's a bit much trouble, so I'll leave that one be.

On the better summers however, I would suggest that at least one or two of the following might be better than 1990/1: 1962/3, 1964/5, 1967/8, 1972/3, 1974/5, 1977/8, 1981/2, 1994/5. Again, I don't have convenient RST totals easily at hand. I'd like to know the exact criteria used... particularly if they were using readings from Auckland city in that site's latter years.

[janewaystv]

It's for the past 50 years from 2005 backwards so the "worst" two summers refers to records from 1955 onwards, I'm with you on this one, however I've yet to set up a database for Auckland sunshine, I'm not too keen on it because as we discussed ages ago - too many numerous site movements/changes with a lot of incomplete records from 1993 - 2004.

I said "1979/1980 Summer comment isn't incorrect for Dec but true for Jan/Feb especially the latter" - I made a grammatical error re the "incorrect" word - it should read as correct

I'll have to do further research re the second paragraph and get back to you on this at a later date.