General January Weather

[TonyT]

Is it a tip bucket gauge? It might be rocking in the wind?

That would be my guess as well. Might need to check and see if its come loose from its mounts.

[Richard]

Looks to be,there it is on the left in the photo

[melja]

I don't think its wind as is been calm and still doing it, another 0.2mm at 10am this morning and next to no wind being recorded.

[TonyT]

Large spiders maybe?

[Bradley]

Average January maximum in the first 20 days of the year running at 20.1C which is the coldest January average maximum in 20 years - will be interesting to see what the next 3-4 days of warm weather will do to that figure though the end to the month looks quite cool as well which could bring that figure right down again...

[spwill]

The Russell webcam shows isolated Cbs forming over Northland.
http://www.takeabreak.co.nz/webcams/55/russell_webcam

[spwill]

And isolated thunderstorms for inland Northland

[NZstorm]

Average January maximum in the first 20 days of the year running at 20.1C which is the coldest January average maximum in 20 years - will be interesting to see what the next 3-4 days of warm weather will do to that figure though the end to the month looks quite cool as well which could bring that figure right down again...

Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin have had some real cool weather this month.
When I left Dunedin on the 10th there was wintry looking showers. Gfs had 850mb -2C.

[jamie]

Check out that convergence in northland. Looks awesome on radar.

[Richard]

Large spiders maybe?

Come on Tony we are only talking .2 recording here, have to be only a bloody small spider. But seriously ive heard of these .2 recordings happening before but they were occurring, but this was happening due to frost buildup.

[TonyT]

Large spiders maybe?

Come on Tony we are only talking .2 recording here, have to be only a bloody small spider. But seriously ive heard of these .2 recordings happening before but they were occurring, but this was happening due to frost buildup.

Have you seen the size of a tipping bucket? Lets settle on a moderate sized spider. It certainly needs a bit of weight moving from one side to the other to force the mechanism to tip. The difference with frost is that it is considered real precipitation and should be recorded. However, in the old days of the manual gauges while it was recorded, if we were sure it was only frost and not rain then it was not accumulated into the monthly total or counted as a rainday.

[Storm Struck]

Are you sure its not NIWA's swear bucket, dropping 10 cents in the bucket every 2-3 hours seems idealic .

Something that has made more "cents"- sense is the more summer like temperatures today, the next few days hopefully won't take too much from the surface and subsoils.
Another 20mm now would be a comfortable set up for late summer/autumn.

[Richard]

Have you seen the size of a tipping bucket? Lets settle on a moderate sized spider. It certainly needs a bit of weight moving from one side to the other to force the mechanism to tip.

Well i suppose its about the most plausible explanation for whats triggering the .2 recordings...but every two hours over a couple of days?, thats one persistent spider.

[David]

Looking like above average temperatures here for the next week, Metservice even have Auckland up to 28 on Sunday.

[Chris Raine]

Maybe some one needs to contact Metservice or NIWA to get the rain gauge checked

[Razor]

32 glorious degrees here in ChCh city. Just magic to have summer back

[Storm Struck]

Got to 34C here in Rolleston with a breezy NWer early afternoon, now a breezy E-NE but still relatively warm on 29C.

[NZstorm]

Looking like above average temperatures here for the next week, Metservice even have Auckland up to 28 on Sunday.

Looks like we will end up with a very warm January recorded by months end, along with a very wet one. But sunshine will be mediocre.

[spwill]

More humid weather showing up for next week
The seabreeze convergence was active over Northland again this afternoon, I see Metservice is showing Kaikohe with 50.8mm in the 2 hr period to 6pm

[Richard]

Warm night for many in the south, hasn't gone lower than 20.5deg here.

Talking to some folk down our road about the storm Tuesday, they recorded 33mm in the 15 mins while 22mm fall here, they are only 500m away, that would have to be getting up towards the heaviest rate per hour. What was interesting so how narrow the storm was 500m north of me not a drop and about one km to the south likewise.

[RWood]

Nice sunny day here today, especially after the unpleasant classic "spoiler" conditions on the previous two - windy, and mostly overcast apart from some of Friday afternoon.

However for most places January is likely to end up considerably cloudier than sunny December. A good feature of December here was the very sunny run in the last 1/3 of the month, matching the longest daylight times.

[Razor]

Crazy hot, just nudged 35 agrees at Jeff's in our area. Surprised given how much cloud thee is

[melja]

Yeah to hot at the busker's in the park.

[David]

Hottest day of summer here today, sunny skies and 28.4C max, dewpoint 18C

[shovelopikis]

31.2c western bays.