General March Weather

[Dean.]

Can always count on the Mt Peel area...looks dark to my southwest,at least it will take my mind off the cricket!

[Orion]

Did I just hear thunder?

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Interesting cloud forms, from here but nothing much excitable to 'wet your pants' about
Light winds from between the west and SE for much of the day.

[Orion]

That was thunder!

[matttbs]

Had heaps of thunder, lightning, heavy rain and even a few hail showers here. Autumn is here!

[Dean.]

Had a nice rumble in town

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Sky looking as though it is filling in down there, but this as is a west to east system so nothing much will be expected up here, sadly.

[Dean.]

Sky looking as though it is filling in down there, but this as is a west to east system so nothing much will be expected up here, sadly.

Creeping north slowly and weakening,had the odd flash and rumble

[Skywatcher]

Drove down to Rakaia just after 6pm then across towards the storm near Methven but it was dying by then and rain was very heavy. Heard some thunder and saw a couple of big flashes overhead but it was impossible to capture anything. Back to Rakaia through some torrential downpours near Barrhill but north of the river it was dry from Dunsandel apart from light rain near Rolleston.

[Richard]

As happened for months on end in North Canterbury this system produced next to nothing yet again,the on going drought is now getting really desperate yet there's little mention of just how bad it is in the media,as melja has noticed when driving through this area its looking so dry and being this close to winter too means a tough time for many farmers coming up.

[spwill]

Good growing weather here last couple of weeks with follow up heavy showers after Pam and warm temperatures, Auckland gardens are looking lush. The average March min near 16C.

[Richard]

Good growing weather here last couple of weeks with follow up heavy showers after Pam and warm temperatures, Auckland gardens are looking lush. The average March min near 16C.

You're lucky

[melja]

Yep not a drop here in Rangiora.
Want a bit of wind and rain to test out my new Acurite weather station

[spwill]

Yes, endless dry weather becomes ugly.

A low in the models for next week could be something to watch for Canterbury I think.

[Manukau heads obs]

there has been a lack of southerly outbreaks during the weak La Nina-> neatural years
with El Nino starting to build better maybe there will be a return of more southerly outbreaks this winter?

[Tornado Tim]

West coast by Raglan is still dry and all the grass is yellow.

Scattered Showers around today.... Mild temps in a moderate SW flow.

[Richard]

Managed to get a 4mm brief heavy shower this afternoon

[matttbs]

Managed to get a 4mm brief heavy shower this afternoon

Hey Richard just curious as to how much rain you have had for the month of March so far?
I was at the field days in kirwee last weekend and man what a difference compared to my place which is only 1hr15m South. We have had too much rain here, ground is feeling really wet and it's not drying now as the autumn chill is in the air. All of the thunder Storm activity has passed directly over me which is the biggest contribution to how wet it is here

[melja]

A farmer in the hawarden area I spoke to last week has had only 28mm since xmas

[Richard]

Hey Richard just curious as to how much rain you have had for the month of March so far?
I was at the field days in kirwee last weekend and man what a difference compared to my place which is only 1hr15m South.

Including the 4mm yesterday we have had 15mm for march.
I was at Kirwee as well and it was greener there than around here

[Dale]

I dont have photographic evidence but the ground scraping toothy shelf cloud I saw around 12pm Saturday munching up Hokitika.. rivalled some of the QLD storms i went through. That is my March highlight.

[David]

We ended up with quite a warm March here. Key stats from my station:

Avg temp ..... 19.5°C
Avg min ....... 15.7°C
Avg max ...... 24.2°C
Highest ........ 27.0°C
Lowest ......... 11.3°C
Rainfall ........ 111 mm

[Skywatcher]

Readings from my station:

Ave temp 15.7°C
Ave Minimum 11.5°C
Ave Maximum 21.2°C
Minimum 6.2°C on 20th
Maximum 30.1°C on 2nd
Rainfall 53.8mm

A warmer March here, too. Mostly because of the higher minimums with a lot of cloudy nights. Rainfall was almost as much as all of summer.

[Razor]

A drastic difference from March 2014 to March 2015 for Christchurch- nearly 200mm more last year's well documented floods. And April looks to start on a similar path going by the current forecasts- looks like the dry tendancy by and large is to continue here.

[Nev]

The Indian summer continued through March, being very warm overall. Normal rainfall was a bit of a mixed bag, being especially wet in parts of north Otago, Westland and Tasman, while notably dry in north Canterbury. Sunshine also very unevenly disbursed…

Mar 2015 Climate Anomaly Map ℅ NIWA.gif

Some very preliminary March 2015 figures for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Mar 2015 Average Temps, Rainfall and departures from their 1981-2010 normals ℅ NIWA

Site                      T-max °C       T-min °C       T-mean °C    Rainfall mm

Auckland, Mangere        24.2  +1.8     16.0  +1.4     20.1  +1.6      86  100% 
Auckland Aero            24.3  +1.7     15.9  +1.0     20.1  +1.3      73   97% 
Tauranga Aero            22.8  +0.3     14.7  +0.9     18.7  +0.5      77   80%
Hamilton Aero            24.1  +1.2     11.7  +0.7     17.9  +1.0      73   87% 
Hamilton, Ruakura        24.5  +1.8     13.0  +1.6     18.7  +1.6      60   76% 
Wellington, Kelburn      19.9  +0.8     13.7  +1.1     16.8  +1.0      85  100% 
Christchurch Aero        20.5  +0.2     10.5  +0.9     15.5  +0.6      40   86% 
Dunedin, Musselburgh     17.9  +0.6     10.9  +0.7     14.4  +0.7      47   74%
Greymouth Aero           20.0  +1.1     13.1  +2.1     16.6  +1.7     358  202% 

Note that most of Westland's roughly double normal rainfall fell in just a few days near the beginning of the month; overall it was also exceptionally sunny and warm.

Edit: Amended Wgtn rainfall. And updated Anomaly Map.