Sunniest spot in NZ for 2012

[spwill]

1. Whakatane, 2602 hours of sunshine
2. Nelson, 2584
3. Lake Tekapo, 2562
4. Appleby, in Tasman Bay
5. Blenheim
6. New Plymouth

According to NIWA http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10857317

Lake Tekapo might be our coldest town despite that sunshine.

Which town was the warmest ?

[NZstorm]

Great, Whakatane has knocked Nelson off the sunshine perch!

[RWood]

Great, Whakatane has knocked Nelson off the sunshine perch!

It's bollocks. NIWA doesn't really have the resources to sort out something rational while there is an ongoing transition to EWSs. Meanwhile one can note that for over 4 decades from the late 1950s (and with results checked centrally for a lengthy period of time) Whakatane consistently rated 75-150 hours behind Nelson and Blenheim, with all using the same type of equipment. There is no climatological reason to suppose that it has suddenly "improved" in this way relative to the others. There are other sites whose newly elevated numbers look even less plausible, the champion probably being Telford (Balclutha), now averaging something like 400 hours more than at the Finegand site. Tui time. The Nelson observer could say something about this, but he would be much less polite.

[spwill]

The Nelson observer could say something about this, but he would be much less polite.

Does it really matter.
The far north towns don't make a big noise about being the warmest.

[melja]

Greymouth had 140% of normal too

[RWood]

Greymouth had 140% of normal too

That's the Greymouth EWS, one of the most prominent in my list of suspects: 140% of normal (I suspect that calculation is wrong) or even 125% was unprecedented in the older manual records. Greymouth manual is recording far less sun than the EWS.

All of the following (at least) in my opinion have suspiciously large "improvements":

Whakatane, Te Kuiti, (perhaps) Taumarunui, Paraparaumu EWS (manual readings look fine but are far lower), Ohakune, (possibly - just started) Hokitika, Greymouth, Ashburton, Rangiora, Balclutha (Telford).

The English expert Philip Eden has studied such matters for quite a long time and has some caustic views on what has happened there as far as manual-EWS comparisons go.

The US climate people appear not to be very interested in measuring sunshine hours, which are mainly used by PR spruikers anyway.

[melja]

As a side note I have noticed the weather station in arthurs pass has been shifted from a nice grassy spot to a hot shingle site! This will add a warming trend to that station and record less frost.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

As a side note I have noticed the weather station in arthurs pass has been shifted from a nice grassy spot to a hot shingle site! This will add a warming trend to that station and record less frost.

Yes. I remember that spot near the turntable in my train driving days. Used to peak it at times when no-one was around, mind you it was locked in the end.