NZ Weather Forum

you know, NIWA came out and said the next 3 months would see less westerly winds...a month ago...
well, all we got after that was W or SW winds for the following 4 weeks...
so to average out, we now need much less than normal W or SW winds over the next 2 months...

Beaut day in palmy. Nice breeze. No clouds and a comfortable temp.

Beaut day here also 26deg light E winds,worked in Cashmere today and nearly got blown away with the NE,you fella's on that side of town,do they get much stronger than that??.

Yes. Blustery coldish ENE winds here today. Strong, photosynthesis type of sunshine though.
Warm in areas away from the wind.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote: Warm in areas away from the wind.

Yes, like back here at home again...gees i tell ya what John that was one mean N easterly wind today

Nev wrote:
I also compared the overlapping months of May, June and July, 2009 between NIWA's old Fairlie school-site (probably not the same school) and MS's new Kimbell site. T-maxs at the old site did indeed often read 2-3 degrees higher. However, T-mins could also sometimes be up to 8 degrees lower.

Yes, I found over the winter particuly on frosty mornings the T-mins at the kimbell site were up to 5 degrees warmer than what I recorded. The high school readings last winter were similer to what I recorded. Dont know wether the high school stevonson screen is or was offical or not but the setup looks good, eg 1.5m of ground, Over short grass, no close buildings etc.


Must have been close to 30 degrees at Tekapo today, Tar was melting on the road as I drove home at 4.30.

Richard wrote:Beaut day here also 26deg light E winds,worked in Cashmere today and nearly got blown away with the NE,you fella's on that side of town,do they get much stronger than that??.

Yeah thats pretty typical of what we get here when a High lies out to the east of the country. It is a real pain in the butt!

ohhh i completly forgot to say this when i arrived down here on tuesday. On the way down as i was leaving Putaruru i saw small funnels from the developing cell. They were very short lived and very weak. I counted 3 altogether. They lasted about 20seconds at a guess. Was something that made the trip entertaining

good thing they have not banned weather watching and driving at the same time...yet...LOL

Manukau heads obs wrote:good thing they have not banned weather watching and driving at the same time...yet...LOL

well they are yet to ban it in america so heres hoping haha. the most amazing thing i have seen when chasing was with roger. it was an oncall chase so just him and the tour party. no co driver. he was on the phone to someone at the same time as checking the latest model run with a drink between the legs whilst driving in the torrentail rain shower.

that would have been one of the hairiest moments ive had chasing haha.

Niwa monthly summary
http://www.niwa.co.nz/sites/default/fil ... er2011.pdf

November pattern tends to favour eastern parts of NZ due to high frequency of west/southwest flows but we had a dry month in Auckland. About half our rain fell on the 1st day of the month.

Hmm... I see NIWA only have the 29.5C at Middlemarch as Nov's highest temp. I guess their Ews's 29.8C at the Leeston Wastewater Treatment Plant doesn't count? (contaminated readings maybe? ) Also no mention of the 29.7C at their Chch, Kyle St Ews. Be interesting to see if Chch Gardens tipped the 30C mark?

And no mention the 208 km/h and 206 km/h gusts at Cape Turnagain on the 21st and 25th respectively, yet the site has featured other recent summary's.

Nev wrote:Hmm... I see NIWA only have the 29.5C at Middlemarch as Nov's highest temp. I guess their Ews's 29.8C at the Leeston Wastewater Treatment Plant doesn't count? (contaminated readings maybe? ) Also no mention of the 29.7C at their Chch, Kyle St Ews. Be interesting to see if Chch Gardens tipped the 30C mark?

And no mention the 208 km/h and 206 km/h gusts at Cape Turnagain on the 21st and 25th respectively, yet the site has featured other recent summary's.

Those Ch'ch stations will all be in the Nov. stats. list, so we'll see later.

Tauranga did well this November, average temp 17C, 258hrs sunshine and 13mm of rain. I think the Bay of Plenty climate is a real standout in NZ, It has the benefits of an eastcoast climate without the cold southerly and is in the balmy north.

spwill wrote:Tauranga did well this November, average temp 17C, 258hrs sunshine and 13mm of rain. I think the Bay of Plenty climate is a real standout in NZ, It has the benefits of an eastcoast climate without the cold southerly and is in the balmy north.

There has been no independent verification of Tauranga's sunshine readings for some time now, and there is good reason to think they are a bit on the high side (see also below). Even so, they don't match those of Nelson, Blenheim and Motueka in the "north of the South". The temperature anomalies at Tauranga have been persistently higher than at other major sites in the north for several years now, and this also requires some investigation.

I do not agree at all about the "standout" classification for BOP. I prefer the higher sun in the southern towns as above, and Nelson and particularly Blenheim have lower rainfalls than Tauranga. Warm days down there are also less likely to feel oppressive. Given the PDO state and the concomitant noteworthy transfer of the worst major flooding events to places exposed to the northeast, the BOP should continue to be more likely to experience them for some time yet. In the Nino-favouring epoch 1977-1997, things were different.

In a North Island only context, I prefer Napier - Nelson Park's mean annual temp is only a little lower than Tauranga's, and is about the same as Whakatane's. Rainfall is considerably lower, and the mean sunshine not far short, especially if you look at the period when manual readings were centrally checked.

RWood wrote: less likely to feel oppressive.
.

I like the humid weather of northern NZ, oppressive is a word I would use for Darwin climate rather than NZ climate. BOP is the region where high sunshine meets warmth (I accept the niwa climate stats). The drier eastern climates like Napier get spells of well below average temperatures with southerlies. The Nelson/ Marlborough region has a cool/cold winter.
For me the wet of the BOP region is less of a negative

Tauranga isn't oppressive at all. Darwin where I am at present is, I don't complain about the heat/humidity anywhere near as much as I used to now I've experienced real heat/humidity.

Presently 32°C with a dewpoint of 23°, much nicer than some of the days recently.

spwill wrote:

RWood wrote: less likely to feel oppressive.
.

I like the humid weather of northern NZ, oppressive is a word I would use for Darwin climate rather than NZ climate. BOP is the region where high sunshine meets warmth (I accept the niwa climate stats). The drier eastern climates like Napier get spells of well below average temperatures with southerlies. The Nelson/ Marlborough region has a cool/cold winter.
For me the wet of the BOP region is less of a negative

Humid/oppressive - whatever the terminology, I definitely prefer the drier southern version of warmth, though Napier often approximates it. You clearly miss the point about the stats. - the fact that they are published in NIWA publications doesn't necessarily mean they all have equal validity or soundness, especially if the observers are not necessarily from NIWA or MetService. The temperature anomaly variation may date back to the start of the AWS - it certainly needs to be checked and explained. As far as I recall the sunshine hasn't been measured by NIWA or MetS since the late 1980s.

Good though that there are many of you who prefer the north - one of the other most appealing aspects of the southern places is their lower populations!

tgsnoopy wrote:Tauranga isn't oppressive at all. Darwin where I am at present is, I don't complain about the heat/humidity anywhere near as much as I used to now I've experienced real heat/humidity.

Presently 32°C with a dewpoint of 23°, much nicer than some of the days recently.

Thanks all the same, but I wouldn't be remotely interested in a climate anywhere near as humid as Darwin's. I'm talking in a NZ context only.

Going back to Tauranga temperatures - just flipping through 12 months of summaries from Sept 2010 onwards, I see overall means for Tauranga generally exceeding or matching those around Kaitaia. That clearly contradicts older records and I'm simply not buying it!

RWood wrote: You clearly miss the point about the stats. - the fact that they are published in NIWA publications doesn't necessarily mean they all have equal validity or soundness, especially if the observers are not necessarily from NIWA or MetService. !

If NIWA are happy to put there name next to them then surely it is fair to assume they are atleast near correct but I am looking at the long term climate data.

RWood wrote: Good though that there are many of you who prefer the north - one of the other most appealing aspects of the southern places is their lower populations!

The recent Mercer survey http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/qu ... eport-2011
puts Wellington behind Auckland

spwill wrote:

RWood wrote: You clearly miss the point about the stats. - the fact that they are published in NIWA publications doesn't necessarily mean they all have equal validity or soundness, especially if the observers are not necessarily from NIWA or MetService. !

If NIWA are happy to put there name next to them then surely it is fair to assume they are atleast near correct but I am looking at the long term climate data.

The long term data clearly support my contention about the temperature mean for Tauranga (now too high), and also about the sunshine relativity.

spwill wrote:

RWood wrote: Good though that there are many of you who prefer the north - one of the other most appealing aspects of the southern places is their lower populations!

The recent Mercer survey http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/qu ... eport-2011
puts Wellington behind Auckland

I was talking about the "north of the South", not Wellington - nor Auckland for that matter. And I certainly have no desire to see a southwards drift of population - fortunately it's unlikely for economic reasons anyway.

tgsnoopy wrote:Tauranga isn't oppressive at all. Darwin where I am at present is, I don't complain about the heat/humidity anywhere near as much as I used to now I've experienced real heat/humidity.

Presently 32°C with a dewpoint of 23°, much nicer than some of the days recently.

Humidity is a killer whenever the suns shining at the same time or it depends on what youre doing but if on holiday its no problem but imagine doing manual outdoor work in Darwin wonder how they cope?

NIWA had an abbreviated seasonal report for Spring in the media, but some sort of bug on their relevant webpage (Seasonal reports) is hiding the Spring reports! (suppose to be all seasons, going back to 2001).