General August Weather

[NZstorm]

MS a little late with this morn's Severe Thunderstorm Outlook update, but I see they've upgraded Akld's chances tonight from low to moderate.

I can't see any thunder for Auckland tonight but definitely a chance there tomorrow.

Grey Lynn currently sunny 19C.

[moylanr]

Polar trough sweeps NZ Wednesday to Thursday time frame.

Looks like an active cold front will bring snow down to 500m in inland Otago/Canterbury tomorrow as the front moves north. Places like Tekapo township could get 10cm+.

Temperature upswing in central Christchurch Botanic Gardens ahead of front:

28 August 2013.JPG

Nb the solar radiation sensor is elsewhere - near the airport.

[David]

Warm 18C earlier today, certainly going to notice the colder change tomorrow!

[matttbs]

About 10 mins ago it was still 17 deg but now that cold front is pushing through and its only 9! Very strong SW

[snowstormwatcher]

Strong Gusty Southerly change here in the last 30mins. Very mild before the change though with a high of 19c

[Orion]

Stiffish-sounding southerly has arrived here in the last ten minutes.

[snowstormwatcher]

Around 4-5cm of Snow in Fairlie this morning.

[Richard]

Yes that snow line looks about that 300m they said it would ,Fairlie been 330asl.
9mm of rain here over night

[Bradley]

Snow line is around 400-450m here in central Canterbury, I even think Springfield wouldn't have got any of the white stuff...

[Richard]

Thats interesting Bradley,its about 300m around here

[matttbs]

Friends in staveley got 6-8cm

[Thunder]

Probably got 4cm here in Mt Somers. Melting quickly with the sun out though. Nice end to winter perhaps?

[tich]

A dusting on Mt Herbert this morning, but gone now. (none visible on Port Hills)

[jamie]

Got home to find small hail in lumps on the ground from overflow for the spouting. Looks to have been about 3-5mm hail. Weather station caught it well

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1377753277.234269.jpg

[jamie]

Radar shows at 4.07 there was a bright red blob that developed right over us here.

[Area51]

Lightning observed to WNW of Papakura just before 1800.

[spwill]

Thunderstorm activity yesterday over the upper North Island looked very isolated.

Possibly another burst of cold air for NZ next week.

[David]

Miserable cold day in Auckland with a few patches of light rain from late morning. Only reached 11.7C here. Was 9C at midday

[Tornado Tim]

Miserable cold day in Auckland with a few patches of light rain from late morning. Only reached 11.7C here. Was 9C at midday

Stark contrast to Hamilton…… Partly to mostly cloud with mid to high level cloud.

[einzack]

and a glorious day on the coast.
maxed at 18.8°C with wall to wall sunshine.
a coolish SE breeze, but did not detract from a cracking day.

[spwill]

Medium to high level cloud for Auckland with some patchy light rain but clearing from mid afternoon, unusually chilly, the cold air followed me up from Dunedin, max 12C or 13C.

[Nev]

Looks like NIWA's Akld, Mangere site has just recorded its highest ever August average Tmax, Tmin and Tmean. Wgtn, Kelburn and Dunedin, Musselburgh also look to have recorded their highest average Tmin and Tmean, while Chch Aero recorded its highest average Tmean and Tauranga Aero its highest average Tmax.

Below are some very preliminary figures from NIWA…

Code: Select all

August 2013 Avearge Temps (°C) v. 1981-2010 Normals (* new site records)

Site                      T-max            T-min            T-mean            Since

Auckland, Mangere         16.4*   +1.4      9.7*   +1.5      13.0*   +1.4      1959
Tauranga Airport          16.7*   +1.7      8.4    +1.7      12.5    +1.7      1913
Hamilton Airport          15.8    +1.1      6.1    +1.1      10.9    +1.3      1971
Wellington, Kelburn       13.7    +1.5      8.7*   +2.0      11.2*   +1.8      1928
Christchurch Airport      13.6    +1.2      4.3    +2.3       9.0*   +1.8      1954
Dunedin, Musselburgh      12.7    +1.5      6.3*   +2.1       9.5*   +1.8      1947 

[Skywatcher]

My station recorded a Tmean of 9.7°C which is +2.1 compared with its "long" term average - more like May or September. With a minimum temp of 0.3°C this is the first August without a reading <= 0C ... last year only recorded 1 day but 2011 had 16 !

The "winter" Tmean was 8.3°C which is the highest I've recorded and +1.6 compared with the average.

[David]

A mean low of 9.0°C and mean max of 16.3°C here. Lowest temperature only 5°C! Quite a wet month, my station recorded around 180mm of rain

[Nev]

NIWA confirm that this was NZ's warmest August and winter on record in their preliminary summaries...
'August 2013 National Climate Summary'
'Winter 2013 National Climate Summary'.

Not sure why they have Mangere as only its 2nd warmest August on record with a Tmean of 13.0 when its previous record was 12.8C in 2009. Can't find a higher Tmean for Chch Aero either, nor Kelburn which looks to have been 1st equal with 2009.