General April Weather

[einzack]

First 4 days of the month have all beaten my previous high temp recorded for April's.
Been glorious weather.

[treetop]

some elevated convection moving over Tauranga now, may be a few sparks as it moves out to sea, 2 days in a row now with heavy showers

[tgsnoopy]

Had hearly 20mm W of Tauranga, no lightning . The builups lacked that extra punch [5 or 6 K] Not complaining though, back to mowing lawns weekly

I had to go up to the Shaw Road (Between Rotorua & Te Puke) radio site about 6.30pm yesterday. There was constant rumbling from a very dark cell towards Rotorua. Never saw a single bit of lightning though, was all embedded.

[NZstorm]

Bit of an upper level system hanging around next week over the North Island. Maybe a few rumbles on one or two days possibly starting with Gisborne on Monday.

7 day accumulated rainfall chart looks a bit more moist for NZ.

[spwill]

Bit of an upper level system hanging around next week over the North Island. .

Last few runs of the GFS indicate humid conditions for Auckland next week so afternoon heat showers look possible depending on how that upper level cool air moves around.
Has been a sunny start to April here following on from a sunny March

[David]

Metservice is forecasting highs of 28C in Hamilton Sunday and Monday! If that comes true surely it's an April record?

[spwill]

Indian Summer for Hamilton the average daily max of 24.6C in March for Hamilton is certainly warm by NZ standards for an Autumn month.

[NZstorm]

Indian Summer for Hamilton the average daily max of 24.6C in March for Hamilton is certainly warm by NZ standards for an Autumn month.

March is traditionally warmer than December in northern regions. March really is a summer month.

30C has been recorded in the Hamilton area in April before at Ruakura.

[RWood]

From 1981-2010 normals for 223 sites (102 NI, 121 SI): The average value of (March mean)-(Dec mean) is +0.10C for the NI, -0.43C for the SI and -0.19C for NZ.

Here are a few values of (Mar)-(Dec) in descending order (degC):

Cape Reinga 1.3 Mokohinau 1.2 Whangaparaoa 1.1 Leigh 1.0 Kaitaia Aero 0.9 Manukau Heads 0.8 Albert Park 0.7 Pukekohe 0.6 New Plymouth AWS 0.5 Kelburn 0.4 Westport 0.3 Palmerston North 0.2 Wanganui 0.1 Paraparaumu Aero 0.0 Musselburgh -0.1 Whakatane Aero -0.2 Milford Sd -0.3 Timaru -0.4 In'gill Aero -0.5 Ch'ch Gardens -0.6 Napier -0.7 Queenstown -0.8 Middlemarch -0.9 Roxburgh Power Stn -1.0 Fairlie -1.1 Wanaka -1.3 Clyde -1.4 Alexandra -1.5

Because rounding is done before the subtraction the real values could be a little off, but the general picture is clear enough.

[Nev]

Metservice is forecasting highs of 28C in Hamilton Sunday and Monday! If that comes true surely it's an April record?

Ruakura's highest ever April temp since records began in 1906 was 29.7C in 1921. However, its 2nd highest is only 27.4C recorded in 2013, 1999 and 1939.

And Hamilton Aero's highest April temp since records began in 1971 was 26.2C in 1999, with its 2nd highest of 25.9C recorded in 2013 and 3rd highest of 25.8C also recorded in 2013 and 2012.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Yes, despite the 'Indian summer' weather you may be getting up there, it's been dull and gloomy down here.
Had to light the fire tonight

[Bradley]

Yes, despite the 'Indian summer' weather you may be getting up there, it's been dull and gloomy down here.
Had to light the fire tonight

Do you have any thoughts on tbe coming winter John for the mid-Canterbury region??

[Richard]

Yes, despite the 'Indian summer' weather you may be getting up there, it's been dull and gloomy down here.
Had to light the fire tonight

Certainly had a great run of 'Indian summer' days here up till yesterday,few days of gloom coming up now though

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Do you have any thoughts on tbe coming winter John for the mid-Canterbury region??

Yes.
Mild, with occasionally wet periods and occasionally dry periods.

[Dean.]

!

[treetop]

Definitely a thundery period up north late mon through the week. The low that started some 1000 ks east of the North Is contiues westward across BOP on tues [bizzarre or what !] .This will drag some moisture east of EastCape [and from the tropics] so it will feel like early Jan and very unstable to boot.This setup for April is unpresitented [taste of the future ?] enjoy!

[Nev]

This ex-tropical low currently east of the N.I. actually formed about 3,000 km NE of NZ around March 30. It also has nothing to do with ex-TC Mike and never was a TC, as claimed by a certain 'whether news authority'. The remnants of ex-TC Mike disappeared into the subantarctic around March 28.

[spwill]

The 16-17C dewpoints modelled for northern NZ this week is normal April weather, hopefully we can catch a shower here, Tuesday might be the best chance.

[Bradley]

Do you have any thoughts on tbe coming winter John for the mid-Canterbury region??

Yes.
Mild, with occasionally wet periods and occasionally dry periods.

Good to see someone who is bucking the trend of 'we're going to get an extreme winter' and actually predict a milder one!!

[03Stormchaser]

Well there isn't any hype with a mild winter is there.

[Michael]

Think its a pretty normal autumn here,good mix of sun and rain,alls growing well.

[Bradley]

Well there isn't any hype with a mild winter is there.

I've never seen anyone get excited about a potentially mild winter coming up but it's good to see someone who doesn't prescribe to the theory that just because we had the warmest winter on record last year we have to necessarily have a very cold one the year after...

[David]

Beautiful sunny day with 24C here. My April temperature record is 25.1 (last year), I wonder if we can beat that during the next few days.

[Manukau heads obs]

Yeah Nev
I was surprised to see that claim too

[treetop]

NEV Regardless of whether the Low or what low originated where, its highly unusual to see such westward drift of a low over a 6 day period in our latitude. Upper level wind flows must play a major part there or the lack of. If you can look at the runs over the last 5 days its all there, and possibly another 2 days of westward drift to come, see"metvuw"