General May Weather

[Manukau heads obs]

re may month rain total, yes, is a record for here
and more rain showers to come next few days
The ground has coped well though since it had been so dry before hand

[Richard]

Brief heavy shower at 4.00am brought 6mm,6deg at presant

[NZstorm]

I have reduced my thunder expectations for the North Island from this system. The air mass trajectory will be off the South Island tomorrow which will dry the airmass. However we will still get decent showers with small hail and squalls to 50kts, temperatures nearer 10C in squalls. Only isolated thunder.

Ukmet output for midday tomorrow.

[Manukau heads obs]

the airmass can pick up alot of moisture again as it travels over the tasman sea to the west of the north island

[spwill]

There is a nice pool of Cb over the sea west of the South Island.

Partly cloudy and 19C here currently

[jamie]

Have just ticked over the 200mm mark for may. Crazy how well the ground has taken two wet months in a row. It was so dry down to deep layers.

[Richard]

Could still do with a bit of that rain here Jamie,subsoils are still dry here.

Still a light SW this morning with a bit of cloud about so that's kept the frost away.

[Manukau heads obs]

260mm for rain here now...that should be it...blown the record out of the water

[David]

Down to 1.5C here this morning, just cold enough for the moisture on the deck/car to freeze over.

Impressive rain figure Brian... 217mm here

[kiwisk8er]

Here in Tawa my weather station is currently sitting at 2.9 degrees. No wind and clear skies means a frost for us tomorrow morning (unless the wind comes up).

[jamie]

down to 2.1*C at the moment with clear skies and very light to no wind. I'm pretty sure we will drop below the 0.0*C forecast tonight.

[Dale]

Don't know about the forecast minima of 3 tonight for around here.. throw that out the window, it's iced up earlier than it did last night.

[Tornado Tim]

Hamilton AWS reached its low forecasted low of 0°C, yes I also think it will go below 0.
0.3°C here atm and dropping relatively quickly.
-1 or -2 perhaps?

[jamie]

AMAZING picture in the Times today of a rising sun, long shafows and low fog, all taken from in a helicopter. Looks like a bomb going off

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Yeah that is a wicked photo!

Quite a nice day actually here today with no wind and blue dome skies. A little bit of heat in the sun also but there is that more winter like chill in the air also. Managed to pass the 100mm for the month from the Polar Blast.

[Michael]

it must be light scatter over the clouds,nice photo.

[Orion]

neat photo, jamie. Great colours and effects.

[CHCH Weather Chaser]

Nice mild day to end the month. Started on -2 and has warmed up to 14. No wind once again making it pleasant. High cloud has increased over the past hour or so. I see this morning there was still a very visible dusting of snow on the port hills from the city.

[Manukau heads obs]

well, been a real interesting month May was around here!
lots of exciting weather

[Richard]

Bit on the boring side here though Brian,a dry month,hoping June can bring more rain.
Wouldn't mind a few days like today this winter,light NW wind with a 17deg high

[trickytiger]

yep ended up having too many layers of clothes on today, was sweating at one point lol.

Had a high of 18.5deg here.

[Nev]

well, been a real interesting month May was around here!
lots of exciting weather

Agree, some great lightning storms and a good 'winter' storm typically in the month's last week.

well have just smashed the wettest may on record in this area

Yep, I see your May total ended up at 270mm Brian and 243mm at Grey Lynn.
Mybad, but I think we got roughly around 240mm here on Waiheke (also likely to be a local record).

NIWA's preliminary 'smashed' totals this May also include 263mm for Mangere, 238mm for Akld Aero and 267mm for Albany, from records going back to 1959, 1962 and 1966 respectively.

However, based on numerous other past Akld sites, it's possible May 1954 may have been wetter, e.g. 243mm at Owairaka (Mt Albert) and as much as 319mm at Whenuapai Aero.

Otherwise you'd probably have to go back to the 1920's to find higher May totals, e.g. Albert Park and Lake Pupuke (by remarkable coincidence) both recorded 270mm in 1924, 348mm in 1926, and 265mm in 1928 (some other sites recorded more).

[David]

218mm for Howick in May, my wettest month was 255mm in Jan 2011.

[Nev]

Mangere and Akld Aero's highest ever month was July 1998, with 349mm and 304mm respectively.
But yes, some pretty high totals have also been recorded in Jan and Feb.

[David]

Mangere and Akld Aero's highest ever month was July 1998, with 349mm and 304mm respectively.
But yes, some pretty high totals have also been recorded in Jan and Feb.

The old Owairaka station recorded 370mm in April 1956, followed by 313mm in June the same year!