General August weather

[tich]

3 snowfalls in the western bays/ tihoi area of waikato this august...not sureif its normal or not since ive only been here 2 months but id say atleast once a year during a cold snap wouldnt be hard to belive, very cool, and sunny.

How high above sea-level are you?

[Nev]

Here's NIWA's preliminary, 'August 2014 National Climate Summary'.

Highly variable rainfall but plenty of sunshine.


The national average temp of 8.7C was 0.1C above normal.

The month's highest temp of 23.6C was recorded at Riccarton, Chch on the 2nd, and the lowest of -7.0C was recorded at Middlemarch on the 4th.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

The month's highest temp of 23.6C was recorded at Riccarton, Chch on the 2nd,

I didn't know that Christchurch had an official weather site in Riccarton?

[Razor]

The month's highest temp of 23.6C was recorded at Riccarton, Chch on the 2nd,

I didn't know that Christchurch had an official weather site in Riccarton?

That would be the NIWA HQ I presume

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

That would be the NIWA HQ I presume

I never thought of that

[Nev]

Yes, NIWA have been taking readings from their Riccarton office since 1998.


Note that there are also a few errors with their main centre rainfalls, despite some missing data:

Hamilton Aero's missing data for the 28th shouldn't make any difference, as I don't think there was any rain around that time. Regardless, its total of 83.4mm (not 84mm) should be 70% of its normal (not 78%).

Tauranga Aero's 81.2mm should have been 74% of normal (not 73%).
However, with the missing data included, 83.4mm would be 76% of normal.

And Kelburn, Wgtn's 74.8mm should be 64% of its normal (not 55%).
However, with the missing data included, 76.0mm would be 65% of normal.

[tich]

I thought August would've been somewhat colder than normal (more southerlies and southwesterlies) over NZ - warm spell at beginning of month must've had some impact on monthly mean temperatures to make them close to average.

[Nev]

Yes, mean-temps were generally above average for the first half of August, but below average for the second half. And apart from Northland, hardly any rain fell elsewhere in the second half of August.

Compare the anomaly maps below for the last 15 days of August with the month as a whole…

August (last 15 days) 2014 Climate Anomaly Map (NIWA).gif

August 2014 Climate Anomaly Map (NIWA).gif