NZ Weather Forum

Re Twizel, you might find this thread interesting - Hottest &coldest temps in Twizel, in which...

RWood wrote:I just looked up their data - 3 different sites covering the period 1972-2001, nothing in their records since then. The extremes for that period were: 33.4C on 6/2/1973 and -14.7C on 5/7/1975.

Re Rangiora, NIWA have a station just SSW of the town, which has only surpassed 30C on 4 occasions so far this summer, i.e. 30.6C on Dec 18, 32.5C on Jan 1, 32.1C on Jan 2 and 30.2C on Feb 23.

There is also a reasonable looking PWS in the middle of Rangiora township, that occasionallly reads slightly higher, and a rather dodgy-looking PWS (possibly impermanent) at Rangiora Airfield, about 5 km WNW of the town, which appears to give readings that can be anything from 4-6C higher still.

The Twizel claims are ridiculous. The "late" Gary of Omarama used to refer to readings being taken at/near (roughly) "that well-known heat sink, the Twizel mall". Locals all over the country will continue to delude themselves about the temperatures in their little pieces of heaven.

Nev wrote:
Re Rangiora, NIWA have a station just SSW of the town, which has only surpassed 30C on 4 occasions so far this summer, i.e. 30.6C on Dec 18, 32.5C on Jan 1, 32.1C on Jan 2 and 30.2C on Feb 23.

There is also a reasonable looking PWS in the middle of Rangiora township, that occasionallly reads slightly higher, and a rather dodgy-looking PWS (possibly impermanent) at Rangiora Airfield, about 5 km WNW of the town, which appears to give readings that can be anything from 4-6C higher still.

Where abouts was the historical 42.4C recorded at Rangiora on the 7th Feb 1973, then?

JohnGaul
NZThS

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:Where abouts was the historical 42.4C recorded at Rangiora on the 7th Feb 1973, then?

Just on the western fringe of the township (authorised observer).


Speaking of 'heat-sinks', you might find this Brisbane story somewhat amusing.

Myself wrote: or above asphalt instead of grass?

Yer, thats why Rangiora has a temperature gauge that gives such outrageous temps,but at the end of the day such public monument gauges that aren't even close to being accurate end up causing through a lack of general public understanding more confusion than what they are worth.

Today's temperature range here today was getting up near as good as it can get here -4 to a max of 21C, a 25C range

Strange climate there!next you'll tell us its 25 on the same day later

Richard wrote:-2 this morning

Michael wrote:Strange climate there!next you'll tell us its 25 on the same day later

Richard wrote:-2 this morning

Why does that not sound possible to you Michael

Remember Michael that 25C is not that hot really down here but for you guys in auckland that dont get that hot that often it might seem strange
Oh and 26C was the high in murchison that day too .

melja wrote:Remember Michael that 25C is not that hot really down here but for you guys in auckland that dont get that hot that often it might seem strange
Oh and 26C was the high in murchison that day too .

I could live with the 25C but not the -2C. Aucklands average max temps certainly hold up well by comparison to the warmest parts of NZ.

Never experienced such large ranges in one day,sounds unbelievable if its a hot day the minimas are often high say above 13 to reach 25,if its -2 in Auckland then 15 may be tops on such a day.

Richard wrote:
Why does that not sound possible to you Michael

Michael, a big one day temp range is not uncommon for the drier inland basins of the SouthIsland during the warmer part of the year

spwill wrote:Michael, a big one day temp range is not uncommon for the drier inland basins of the SouthIsland during the warmer part of the year

Not uncommon to go from 3 to 33 some days in summer.

Andy wrote:

spwill wrote:Michael, a big one day temp range is not uncommon for the drier inland basins of the SouthIsland during the warmer part of the year

Not uncommon to go from 3 to 33 some days in summer.

Too true Andy,the nighttime temps don't increase at the same rate as day time temps do going into summer

Hey we could make a game out of this over the coming summer,what do you's think???
I recon the us inlanders would have it over the coasters on this one

Ok, well i started it off a few days ago with my last post in the ""Big temperature range"" thread,so 25C is the score to beat

Andy wrote:

spwill wrote:Michael, a big one day temp range is not uncommon for the drier inland basins of the SouthIsland during the warmer part of the year

Not uncommon to go from 3 to 33 some days in summer.

Now that is an exaggeration. I have (as part of a project some time back to collect daily temperature means for a variety of NZ locations to calculate "seasonal split dates") 53 years' worth of daily data for Alexandra. The largest temperature range in that set of records, which I suggest will not have increased much with later data, is 27.5C recorded in March 1940, when the values were 4.6C min and 32.1C max.

Hardly an exaggeration, he's only out by 1.6C at the low and a huge 0.9C at the high Now RWOOD would it not be possible for some pockets of inland areas to get such temps? just cause a AWS some 10 or 20kms away didnt record it.
Plenty of people live work and play outside of the main towns in these areas and take temp recordings and are we to say they are all wrong

Along the same theme, does anyone know the highest max after a 0.0 or less ?

Also need to note Rupert that the Clutha river help cool Alexandra to a certain degree,gets warmer as you get further away from the river.

We'll see what happens this coming summer hey.

melja wrote:Hardly an exaggeration, he's only out by 1.6C at the low and a huge 0.9C at the high Now RWOOD would it not be possible for some pockets of inland areas to get such temps? just cause a AWS some 10 or 20kms away didnt record it.
Plenty of people live work and play outside of the main towns in these areas and take temp recordings and are we to say they are all wrong

Wasn't an AWS - it was a longterm and properly monitored manual station. I didn't say such things were impossible, just that unmonitored PWSs can be "interesting" to say the least. If you want to see some professional support for my caution, try contacting the observer John Mathieson at Nelson, who has been watching this stuff for decades.

As for the exaggeration - his "not uncommon" range is about 30C, 2.5C higher than from any day in 53 years' data!!

Richard wrote:Also need to note Rupert that the Clutha river help cool Alexandra to a certain degree,gets warmer as you get further away from the river.

We'll see what happens this coming summer hey.

I don't accept that statement for summer there, except for the close margins of the river - to the north the ground rises, and the station referred to in the town boundaries is probably as warm for daytime maxima as anywhere in the Alex. vicinity.

A couple of possible candidates for a bigger range than Alex., though their record-keeping may not have been all that lengthy - would have to check - could be Albert Town and Bendigo.

RWood wrote:

I don't accept that statement for summer there, except for the close margins of the river - to the north the ground rises, and the station referred to in the town boundaries is probably as warm for daytime maxima as anywhere in the Alex. vicinity.

A couple of possible candidates for a bigger range than Alex., though their record-keeping may not have been all that lengthy - would have to check - could be Albert Town and Bendigo.

Yep ,thats a fair enough call,its just that i remember farmers i had worked for saying they would often notice a slight drop in temp in Alex than areas outside the town.

Albert Town and Bendigo as possible candidates for a bigger range,may well be i don't know,but i do know of two areas that would also be,one being an area of the eastern side of the Amuri plains,10 kms east of Culverden,up against the Lowry Range,the other one a farming area about 50 -60 km up the Clarence river that because of the sheltering effects of the seaward Kaikoura ranges is also an extremely hot area.

Well, maybe when someone gets a good station in one of those spots Richard....

I checked out the 2 places I suggested, but they both failed to beat Alex's highest daily range.

Some get ranges from NW conditions to S conditions the otherway too.