General April Weather

[Razor]

Another absolute stunner here. Sunshine hours looking great for April

[Michael]

Looks a westerly flow next weekend,if so hopefully it stays that way with tasman lows not SW.I dont think we had a proper westerly in about 2-3 months here.

[David]

Almost a replica of yesterday here,sunny am and overcast pm with almost no wind.

I've been surprised how much cloud we've had in this anticyclone too, another cloudy start this morning. The last 3 nights have been down to 8°C here, perhaps it would have gone as low as 5 if it had been clear...

Good to see some rain coming up I was starting to wonder if it was going to be a record dry April!

[Dale]

Chilly, foggy start to the morning, showing 8ºc outside at present but sure feels a lot cooler with the barber blowing. Only going to take 1 good snowdump and it's all on over here lol. We really have been lucky since xmas with the fine weather, the last few days have been great during the day but a wee bit of drizzle in the early hours of morning.

[Nev]

Yes, very similar temps to yesterday morn for Akld.

Sunshine hours looking great for April

Yes, a very sunny April for the entire South Island, particularly in the west and south, and for most of the North Island, particularly central-western areas.

Places that, in the last few days, have already surpassed their normal month's sunshine totals include: Greymouth, Franz Josef, Lake Tekapo, Invercargill, Dunedin, New Plymouth, Taumarunui and Te Kuiti.

In contrast, so far Gisborne has had only half its month's normal sunshine total (plus about 250mm).

[spwill]

Sunshine hrs from the Weekend Herald, up to Thursday, Auckland 124.3, Gisbourne 96, NewPlymouth 159.6, Wellington 96.5 and Christchurch 116.1 hrs.

Cooler than usual nights here with this High are bringing the average temperature back to near normal after the warmer than usual start to the month.

[RWood]

Up to 20th (from CliFlo) New Plymouth has 173.2, Tekapo 169.9 and Nelson 165.4. Still some chance the first two may break local records of 228 (NPlym) and 229 (Tekapo). Nelson would need 246 (also the NZ record) - that looks unlikely with more unsettled conditions in the coming week.

[Nev]

Interesting that the Herald had 96 hrs for Gisborne; NIWA only have 78 hrs to Thurs for MetService's Gisborne Aero site?

Latest figures just out to end of yesterday (Saturday) c/o NIWA...

Code: Select all

April 2012 Sunshine Hours to date:
>21st   Normal   Site
136.0    157    Auckland, Mangere Ews 
137.8    164    Hamilton, Ruakura Ews 
113.4    155    Wellington, Kelburn 
133.1    161    Christchurch Aero 
133.8    121    Dunedin, Musselburgh Ews 
176.8    173    New Plymouth Aero Aws 
174.8    188    Nelson Aero 
179.4    152    Lake Tekapo Ews	
 86.6    156    Gisborne Aero 

Edit: Updated previously missing Chch data.

[spwill]

Interesting that the Herald had 96 hrs for Gisborne; NIWA only have 78 hrs to Thurs for MetService's Gisborne Aero site?

Looking again the Herald has 77.9hrs, average to date is 96hrs not a great weather pattern for Gisborne.

Enjoying these 20C sunny days here

[jamie]

got down to 0.7 this morning. edging closer to that 0.0 for the first time this year.

Sunshine in the last 11 days has been amazing!!!!

[Manukau heads obs]

yup, amazing afternoon here....some late in the day builds up around now
wind has died here now,and the neighbour lit a smokey rubbish fire...the valley is filling up with smoke

[RWood]

Interesting that the Herald had 96 hrs for Gisborne; NIWA only have 78 hrs to Thurs for MetService's Gisborne Aero site?

Latest figures just out to end of yesterday (Saturday) c/o NIWA...

Code: Select all

April 2012 Sunshine Hours to date:
>21st   Normal   Site
136.0    157    Auckland, Mangere Ews 
137.8    164    Hamilton, Ruakura Ews 
113.4    155    Wellington, Kelburn 
124.1*   161    Christchurch Aero (* missing 21st)
133.8    121    Dunedin, Musselburgh Ews 
176.8    173    New Plymouth Aero Aws 
174.8    188    Nelson Aero 
179.4    152    Lake Tekapo Ews	
 86.6    156    Gisborne Aero 

I see you must be able to do more direct queries to the databases - via the CliFlo public interface it's more tedious. Dunedin might approach its record value (179), along with those previously named. Notable however is the 191 hours recorded at the Queenstown site in 1988 - according to the horizon profile data available at the time (could be out of date) this was about 81% of the recordable amount.

[Michael]

Quite different scenarios for the weekend with metservice giving a tasman low then and BOM with a tasman high.Of course hopefully metservice is correct.

[snowstormwatcher]

The run of fine weather continues here today, -0.1 this morning up to 19 this afternoon.

Amazing the difference a poorly sited temp sensor makes. Just left work where the sensor was reading 24c. Arrived home where its 18c currently.

[Razor]

Its going to be another stunner here. Looks to be some changes coming on the weekend with a few disturbances coming accross the country- maybe the first snowfalls for the mountains. Am walking the Milford track from May 3, so should make it a bit more interesting

[Richard]

That will be a bit of fun walking the Milford track Razor,i suppose in some ways ya want rain because it spectacular when it does but then just as spectacular when its fine also.

The stunning days weve all seem to have been enjoying looks set for yet another day,waiting for the NW wind to return.

[Nev]

Must be one of longest stretches of fine, settled weather here for a while, despite the relatively cooler nights of late.

Auckland and Hamilton should exceed their normal April sunshine quota today, as Whakatane did yesterday with 176.3 hrs (n/a data for Tauranga). New Plymouth, Nelson and Tekapo will probably surpass the 200 hr mark today (assuming the latter manages 3 hrs).

[Richard]

Been a long stretch alright Nev,problem though i think i may have to start watering soon if there's no rain.

NW wind kicked again about 12.00 at about 30kph at times,21.5 lovely deg

[Tornado Tim]

The Tasman low seems to be developing OK with the GFS the last few rounds. The cold front associated with the southern end of the two lows seems to activate quite well before hitting the WNW Coast of the South Island early to mid Friday Morning. Possible embedded thunderstorms if that forecast pans out. The front is much weaker it seems to the north.

I see there is potential for Antarctic low to greet the southern South Island, models indicate very cold upper air temperatures with the potential for squally hail showers around this Saturday coming.
Something to lookout for.

[Orion]

In Mid-Canterbury, "The weather still continues charming".

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Another fantastic warm day here again with clear blue skies and no wind, just stunning. Does anyone know what the deal is with the NOAA GFS model - it has showed the page cannot be displayed for a few months now, its very useful in the winter for an indication on snow level. If anyone knows of a working link to this one would be much appreciated - cold air on the way this weekend.

[David]

Another fantastic warm day here again with clear blue skies and no wind, just stunning. Does anyone know what the deal is with the NOAA GFS model - it has showed the page cannot be displayed for a few months now, its very useful in the winter for an indication on snow level. If anyone knows of a working link to this one would be much appreciated - cold air on the way this weekend.

I assume you mean this one? http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/READYcmet.php Works for me

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Yes thats the link David, it just wont work for me suddenly weird!

[Storm Struck]

What a fantastic period of nice weather we have had makes up for the lack of good warm weather in January/February, and the days are reaching 19-22C not bad for mid-late autumn.
The NWer that will come through late Thursday and into Friday will be a good disturbance to the trees as the winds have been very light latly, so i wouldnt be cleaning up the colourful leaves in a great hurry.
Looks like a cold blast for Sunday delivering snow to reasonably low levels and the chance for thunder and hail set ups too , Sunday looks more fruitful later on but also another shot on Monday too.
About time we had some action weather ive had my weather station up for a month and only able to record 28mm, which fell within 24 hours.

[spwill]

Interesting temperature differences between New Brighton Pier and Chch Airport given the short distance.
http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/christchurch