Winter 2009 Summaries

[Nev]

NIWA released their preliminary 'Winter 2009 Summary' to the media today (not available on the net yet). Here's a sneak preview c/o Scoop and below a few excerpts...

The temperature averaged over the whole winter was close to average for much of New Zealand, with the three-month nationally-averaged temperature of 8.3°C being only 0.2°C above the winter mean. However, extreme temperature swings were observed through winter; June and July were colder than normal, followed by a record warm August.

Of the six main centres, Auckland was the warmest, Christchurch the coldest, Tauranga the wettest but also the sunniest, and Dunedin was the driest.

The lowest temperature during winter was recorded at Middlemarch, with a minimum temperature of -11.7°C on July 19th. The highest temperature for winter was 22.2 °C recorded at Timaru on August 25th. The highest 1-day rainfall was 205 mm, recorded at Te Puia Springs (Gisborne) on June 29th.

Which begs the obvious question, what happened to the (erroneous) Henderson temps of 24.5°C in June and 25.5°C in August. And so much for the 260.4 mm, recorded at Awakino (coastal Waitomo) on August 25th, or June's 91.8mm at Whitianga for that matter.

[RWood]

Hold on a minute - the 91.8mm at Whitianga is confirmed in the June stats, monthly total was 300mm, consistent with other high values in Coromandel/BOP.

[Nev]

Yes, but it was touted as being June's highest 1-day total nationally, rather than Te Puia Springs.

Also from NIWA's Press Release today...

June 2009 was dominated by higher-than-normal pressures over the country, resulting in more frosts and much colder than normal temperatures everywhere. During July 2009, there was a transition towards more southwesterly winds over New Zealand. During August 2009, frequent northerly winds affected the country, resulting in very warm temperatures.

[Manukau heads obs]

the 160kmh wind at the waitomo site was also wrong I would say
they should do some, that cant be right, checks, before releasing a monthly summary (last months one)
or maybe there trying to beat Jim?

[Nev]

Yes, especially as the July summary says 182 km/h recorded at Cape Turnagain (Wairarapa Coast).

[David]

I also wondered about the report of 163km/hr gust (or similar) reported at Westport in one of the recent summaries, sounds too high

[RWood]

I rely only on the later stats. reports and database records, which are nevertheless subject to late returns and corrections, as indeed they always have been.

[RWood]

It looks as if some errors have been corrected (e.g. Te Puia Springs is there), though the Hamilton winter sunshine total is still wrong (% OK, value jumbled).

http://www.niwa.co.nz/news-and-publicat ... -09-winter

[Manukau heads obs]

I notice the incorrect report of Matamata having a very wet august ended up in a the rural papers.....
farmers in Matamata must be scratching there heads

[Nev]

...the Hamilton winter sunshine total is still wrong (% OK, value jumbled).

Yes, Hamilton should be 424 hrs. Auckland is also wrong - should be 449 hrs, making it not only the warmest, but also the sunniest of the 6 main centres (assuming Tauranga figures are correct?).