Cool January for Auckland

[Manukau heads obs]

ended up being cooler than normal here by 1.4oC
especialy the last few days...due to cloudy SW winds (in contrast to inland areas of the NI!)
also a dry month too (luckily a good dump of rain just before xmas!)

[David]

That's a surprise, the mean high here was 25.2C - and referring to unrounded values, that is 0.07C higher than January 2008. Mean low was 15.0C, and I recorded only 32mm of rainfall.

[RWood]

Go to NIWA's "climate explorer", look at month-to-date temperature maps. Some SW exposure areas are 0.5C-1.0C below average. A larger swathe of the country is 0.0C-0.5C above. In eastern areas excluding Marlborough in the SI temps are 1.0-2.0C above average. Overall, not as hot as media stories would tend to imply.

The sunshine map is more impressive with everywhere north of a line from about Oamaru to Haast at least 105% of average, and most of that at least 115%. Quite a large bloc at 125% or more. For a change, Invercargill is under 85%.

[spwill]

Anticyclonic, rainfall down, sunshine up, cooler for some. Warm flows to the southwest of the High center. Good for people on holiday, a developing dry weather problem for our farmers.
Probably see a lot more Easterlies in Febuary so a better chance for wet weather.

[NZstorm]

Some SW exposure areas are 0.5C-1.0C below average

I think that sums it up for northern areas. Western parts cooled by an unseasonably persistent SW flow.

[Myself]

That's a surprise, the mean high here was 25.2C - and referring to unrounded values, that is 0.07C higher than January 2008. Mean low was 15.0C, and I recorded only 32mm of rainfall.

I think last year someone from Auckland (maybe you?) said that it's rare to see a mean daily high of above 25C for a summer month. It's impressive that it's happened again!

[RWood]

Some SW exposure areas are 0.5C-1.0C below average

I think that sums it up for northern areas. Western parts cooled by an unseasonably persistent SW flow.

And more than the usual quota of "summer northerly" mentioned by Myself - this was much less evident last season.

[David]

I think last year someone from Auckland (maybe you?) said that it's rare to see a mean daily high of above 25C for a summer month. It's impressive that it's happened again!

I may have, yes Well I only have recent records for here, so I thought it would be fair to assume the mean January high here would be around 24 if the Airport has a mean daily high of 23. So that's why I thought a mean daily high of 25 wouldn't be very common. Btw - you have a good memory!

[Manukau heads obs]

yes, thats the key, western areas have been cooler due to lots of SW winds....but the further east you go,..even too David in Howick, those SW winds warm up as they move in land

[jrj]

Just 1.8mm here

[Michael]

Not surprised,last summer was better,so far, Weve had lots Wind on most days even on the blue dome ones,just been sunnier than usual until Thursday evening.

[Nev]

Looks like Akld's slightly below average official T-maxs will also push mean-temps down slightly for Jan. Rainfall only about half of normal.

Of the 'five main centres' (sorry Tauranga), it looks like Hamilton may have just pipped Akld for second place in the sunshine hour stakes. Very little between the first three though and Chch does have more daylight hours to play with than it's N'ern counterparts at this time of year.

[spwill]

Michael,

Not surprised,last summer was better,so far, Weve had lots Wind on most days even on the blue dome ones,just been sunnier than usual until Thursday evening.

Fabulous January weather and Michael is still negative.

[Michael]

Rather even have more Rainy days if it meant having often NW or NE winds.Last September was better though it was much cooler.

Michael,

Fabulous January weather and Michael is still negative.

[spwill]

But sunny warm weather Michael, does it really matter which direction the wind is blowing from.

[Michael]

I was saying that the wind blew the whole time,though it was pleasant to cool down on those blue dome days we had those SW in January.

But sunny warm weather Michael, does it really matter which direction the wind is blowing from.

[tgsnoopy]

I remember when I was new to the forum and defended Michaels opinion and his right to have it.

Sadly, I find myself having difficulty resisting commenting on his view these days.

I feel the weather here since I got back on the 6th has been some of the best weather over summer I have experienced.

That said, I was surprised on Friday returning from Auckland from a cooler more overcast kind of day to a really warm almost hot clear Tauranga day.

The wind was too high for me to do the required radio work this weekend. I really hope next weekend is suitable for the project we need to try to get done.

May we please get a cooler day or two with sufficent rain to keep soil moisture out of drought, I'm starting to get concerned.

[RWood]

What do you expect? Forums which are too tolerant get abused.

[Michael]

Sorry if this is rather OT.
Well what is expected when its summer and its always SW.Even this winter was generous in the fact it was WNW prevailing much of July and August and lots of lightning too plus a good settled september so but since about Xmas especially last month except a few days in the second week its been this.Of course all this time I spend on a weather forum of course I am interested in lightning,really heavy rain,weather bombs and thunder or hail or snow(if it ever would) but then this is summer and expect some of the temperatures that the rest of this forum member constantly alluding to us and "boasting" about and all we get is this stroppy SW,Leaves etc in the gutter nonstop with often grey weather that I find disgusting,Also say if I was to go on a weather chase with you guys,(which I know some would say "Dont want him!")after some of the jeers and I get from some (not all of the people) here and now carried into ZBs weatherwatch site.
If you look at my history in 2005 or abouts I have dramatically toned my behaviour completely and possibly the exception in Cool January I generally keep my SW comments out except in my renamed blog.
Hope it helps...perhaps not but then these are my views.
Moderators can delete or move this if necessary.or page me if its a concern.
Thankyou.

[optrex]

As someone who does not post on here a great deal, I must say that reading this thread in isolation, on its own merits, its informative, has balance and contains useful information from all perspectives.

From my own point of view, I expcted Auckland to have a higher average temperature during summer than it is currently achieving. As to the cause of that ...well thats up for discussion

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Of the 'five main centres' (sorry Tauranga),

I see that TVNZ have now added Tauranga to the 'main cities' in their flyovers.
Shouldn't The Bay Cities (Napier/Hastings)lso have their own fly over as that is the other place where the bulk of NZ's population live?.

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Manukau heads obs]

hotter day across the auckland area along the sea breeze convergence line,,,with some places getting to 29C
(but again western areas, which had the coast SW sea breeze only got to 23, to 24C)

[tgsnoopy]

I see that TVNZ have now added Tauranga to the 'main cities' in their flyovers.
Shouldn't The Bay Cities (Napier/Hastings) also have their own fly over as that is the other place where the bulk of NZ's population live?.

Heck no, only the 6 largest cities in NZ get that

Actually I'd be happy if only the 5 largest got one (bye bye Dunedin)

[Nev]

There was some discussion on this before but, I think the criteria is that the city's population has to be over 100,000. So individually, Napier or Hastings wouldn't qualify. As to whether Tauranga is actually larger than Dunedin, seems Dunedin's Mayor has disputed this - see Otago Daily Times story.

[tgsnoopy]

Hmm, the outer areas around Tauranga I would imagine have a larger population than those around Dunedin.

If they are comparing apples with apples I suspect that Tauranga would still come out on top, with even a larger margin? Who knows.

Those that make these decisions have spoken. In any case, we are making the most of it, even rubbing their nose in it down there.

There is a big billboard down there and I heard even a couple of TV adverts you can google.