General February Weather

[Tornado Tim]

Things blew up quite fast over the BOP coast, a few thundershowers around there now.

[NZstorm]

Despite the fact there is not much instability showing up on models there is good upper level support today, like we had yesterday.

Just need some good heating. 18-20C is enough for showers, but 22C is needed for thunder. Looks like there will be convergence across Waikato into the BOP.

[spwill]

See what happens today if we can get some good heating going like yesterday, cloudy conditions here 19C, dewpoint 14C.

[snowstormwatcher]

After a couple of nice days over the weekend we are back to the cloudy weather that has dominated this month.

Currently 11 degrees with drizzle.

[Orion]

Sunday was drizzly or overcast here.
Monday began cloudy, then was pleasantly sunny from mid-morning
Today we also are back to the drizzle and 10.5 degrees, with a southerly gentle breeze.

[tich]

Drizzly showers began about midmorning out on Banks Peninsula and became more persistent in afternoon, the opposite of what was forecast. Dry and partly cloudy in Chch this evening.

[Richard]

Close to a frost here this morning for the last day of Feb,got down to 2.5deg.After getting two frosts in Jan i thought we may have had one Feb as well the way the season was going,but no,managed not to get one in Feb thankfully.

[tobby921]

It can rain anytime here in Auckland..

[Orion]

A pleasant day here and in Ashburton: a 6degree start at 6.30am, now 21.0 deg. in Mayfield. Some high overcast, some sunshine, mild, light breezes. Saw a pyrocumulus cloud develop in distance from a paddock burnoff.

[Orion]

Rain pattering down here now, in a way that sounds like there's more to come.
14.9 degrees. 75% humidity.
Farewell to February!

[Dean.]

Very heavy rain and gusty winds at 2am.Temperature dropping.Pretty sure Blue Skies forecast is on the button with snow to 700 metres overnight.Metservice forecasting the snow level to be around 1300 metres.

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

20mm here since midnight with 3.5mm in 10 mins at one point. Still raining with some good gusts.

[David]

No wonder Feb felt cool, it was 1.7°C cooler than Feb 2011 and 1.8°C cooler than Feb 2010 here.
I don't have data for long but my month/year comparisons show the differences http://howickweather.info/historical.php

[Tornado Tim]

February last year was drier compared to this February just past, 17.2mm vs 57.2mm. The Average temp difference for February 2011 and 2012 is -1.9°C. So it has been a cooler February than last year.
http://matangiweather.org/lookback.php

[Nev]

Yes, the last 2 months have been relatively cool here. According to NIWA's figures, Feb 2012 for Akld was 0.6C below its 1981-2010 average and summer overall was 0.5C below normal.

Edit: Amended above figures.

[Manukau heads obs]

February was colder here by 0.4C , carrying on a trend from Jan and Dec
Interesting my average was not as much down as auckland was (I guess because we are moderated by the sea breeze anyway)

[Nev]

Oops, was a little out with my figures above. Corrected now.

I think it has been a little cooler in E'ern areas of Akld at times though. Akld Aero can be warmer during NE'ers, with more land-heating, and E'ern areas have been cooler during SSE'ers, again with a more land cooling influence.

[Manukau heads obs]

thanks Nev, was surprised by your original values...0.6 is closer to my 0.4 thats for sure

[spwill]

Niwa summary
http://www.niwa.co.nz/sites/default/fil ... eb2012.pdf

Nor' Wester no show for Feb. Looks like the climates that do well in the fohn NW flows really suffered. The pre frontal NW flows also sometimes bring in very warm air from Australia, we have missed that this Summer.

[RWood]

Niwa summary
http://www.niwa.co.nz/sites/default/fil ... eb2012.pdf

Nor' Wester no show for Feb. Looks like the climates that do well in the fohn NW flows really suffered. The pre frontal NW flows also sometimes bring in very warm air from Australia, we have missed that this Summer.

What makes this February stand out is that previous abysmally cloudy ones have generally been much more "energetic". The terrible Blenheim total of 139 beat its old low of 160 - but the latter was in the very hot, humid and locally flood prone February of 1938. With another record low of 167 in December, Blenheimites must wonder what's happened to their climate for the time being. A complete contrast to Feb 1961, which though cloudy except in the east of both islands and near Cook Strait, produced 279 hours there, more than 50 better than the best tally outside Marlborough.