General February Weather

[Razor]

Looks like we are topping out round 35 degrees again today. What a month!

[NZstorm]

Looks like we are topping out round 35 degrees again today. What a month!

El Nino 1998 again.

[Richard]

The temps over the last few days here have been just perfect, nothing too hot thanks to the cooling effect of the NW wind, today 26deg and yesterday 29deg. Over all it hasn't been a summer thats produced many anticyclonic scorchers that of a standard inland summer

[Razor]

An hour and a half before kickoff in the Crusaders v Chiefs footy, and its still 33 degrees. Those guys are in for some punishment!

[Bradley]

Looks like we are topping out round 35 degrees again today. What a month!

I wonder if Christchurch has ever recorded 3 days in a row over 33C before? Having a quick glance of the summer of 98 I couldn't find any so it might well be!

[Richard]

A day of moderate NW winds today with a high of 29deg, two of three cooler days coming then back to warm weather again by the looks things.

[TonyT]

Looks like we are topping out round 35 degrees again today. What a month!

I wonder if Christchurch has ever recorded 3 days in a row over 33C before? Having a quick glance of the summer of 98 I couldn't find any so it might well be!

A quick look through the cliflo data for the Gardens suggests not, although February 1973 was close:

19730205:0900 35.2
19730206:0900 35.5
19730207:0900 26.9
19730208:0900 41.6

It would probably be reasonable to say it was the warmest period since 1973 (also an El Nino summer).

[TonyT]

A quick look through the cliflo data for the Gardens suggests not, although February 1973 was close:

19730205:0900 35.2
19730206:0900 35.5
19730207:0900 26.9
19730208:0900 41.6

It would probably be reasonable to say it was the warmest period since 1973 (also an El Nino summer).

If you relax the criteria to days over 32, then the following period from February 1949 is interesting, with 3 in a row from the 7th to 9th, 5 in a row over 30, and 8 in a row over 28 deg.

19490205:0900 29.5
19490206:0900 28.8
19490207:0900 31.7
19490208:0900 34.3
19490209:0900 34.2
19490210:0900 30.3
19490211:0900 34.1
19490212:0900 28.2
19490213:0900 28.1

[Bradley]

A quick look through the cliflo data for the Gardens suggests not, although February 1973 was close:

19730205:0900 35.2
19730206:0900 35.5
19730207:0900 26.9
19730208:0900 41.6

It would probably be reasonable to say it was the warmest period since 1973 (also an El Nino summer).

If you relax the criteria to days over 32, then the following period from February 1949 is interesting, with 3 in a row from the 7th to 9th, 5 in a row over 30, and 8 in a row over 28 deg.

19490205:0900 29.5
19490206:0900 28.8
19490207:0900 31.7
19490208:0900 34.3
19490209:0900 34.2
19490210:0900 30.3
19490211:0900 34.1
19490212:0900 28.2
19490213:0900 28.1

Good stats thanks Tony, in summation then it was an historically significant short burst of decent heat but nowhere near the record for days over 28C...

[RWood]

Looks like we are topping out round 35 degrees again today. What a month!

I wonder if Christchurch has ever recorded 3 days in a row over 33C before? Having a quick glance of the summer of 98 I couldn't find any so it might well be!

A quick look through the cliflo data for the Gardens suggests not, although February 1973 was close:

19730205:0900 35.2
19730206:0900 35.5
19730207:0900 26.9
19730208:0900 41.6

It would probably be reasonable to say it was the warmest period since 1973 (also an El Nino summer).

That 4-day spell must be a very strong contender for the hottest 4-day run in Ch'ch. I can recall reports that the 2 35C days featured light N/NE winds. Not sure what cooled things on the 6th - perhaps a freshening NE?

The BCNZ evening news on the 7th had coverage of the record-breaking day - but in a mind-bogglingly gormless example of unthinking robotic reporting, the weather section of the bulletin simply had the presenter do the usual rattle through the list of 3pm temperatures ... anyone dropping in late on the news could be forgiven for thinking nothing meteorological of special interest occurred at all!

[David]

Average temperature (1-min sampling) was 21.5C here for Feb - avg min 17.8 and avg max 25.8.

101mm of rain makes it the wettest Feb my station has recorded.

[Manukau heads obs]

20.9 av temp here
http://www.weather-display.com/windy/gb ... taout.html
and 98mm or so
so very similar

wettest Feb here was 2004, with 296mm (Ricky had 262mm that month)...that year it was like July weather pattern....

[jamie]

20.5 avg temp which was 1.7 higher than avg.
Avg max 26.5
Avg min 15.4
71mm

Avg dew point was 16.4 which is bloody high isn't it?

[Willoughby]

A very, very warm February globally. Could be a record. Would be incredible after the record-breaking warm January globally. Will await the respective reports (normally available mid-month) from NOAA and NASA.

[Manukau heads obs]

Interesting graphic their Willoughby
with one half of Russia being way warm and the other half way colder than normal
(i.e a stuck weather pattern there?)

[RWood]

February 2016 looks to be one of NZ's warmest February's on record (if not the warmest). A few heavy rainfall events also saw large parts the country with above normal rainfall, the exception being some eastern areas of both islands. Auckland, the Waikato and Bay of Plenty were were a little cloudy, but sunshine was generally above normal for most of the rest of the country.

Feb 2016 Climate Anomaly Map ℅ NIWA.gif

Some very preliminary February 2016 figures for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Feb 2016 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        25.2  +1.4     17.8  +1.6     21.5  +1.5     103  143% 
Auckland Aero            24.9  +0.8     17.4  +0.9     21.1  +0.8     100  141% 
Tauranga Aero            24.4  +0.4     17.7  +2.2     21.0  +1.2     126  146%
Hamilton Aero            26.0  +1.3     15.1  +2.2     20.6  +1.8      75  101% 
Hamilton, Ruakura        25.6  +1.3     15.7  +2.4     20.6  +1.8      56   80% 
Wellington, Kelburn      22.4  +1.8     15.6  +1.9     19.0  +1.8      29   42% 
Christchurch Aero        24.5  +2.6     12.8  +1.2     18.7  +1.9      21   48% 
Dunedin, Musselburgh     21.1  +2.6     13.3  +1.8     17.2  +2.2      29   42%
Greymouth Aero           20.8  +0.7     14.4  +1.8     17.6  +1.2     103   64%

Of the six main centres, Hamilton Aero, Kelburn (Wellington), Christchurch Aero and Musselburgh (Dunedin) recorded their 2nd highest ever February mean-temps, Mangere (Auckland) its 3rd highest, Ruakura (Hamilton) its 4th equal highest, and Auckland Aero and Tauranga Aero their 5th equal highest.

Kelburn can't be correct there Nev. I just ran the numbers from CliFlo with only the 29th's Tmax missing (and remember the Tmax for a date is for the previous day, so the 18.0C on the 1st's line was for Jan 31).

I get average Tmax = 23.3C (23.27) and average Tmin = 16.0C (15.99) and the lowish Tmax for yesterday can only reduce mean Tmax to about 23.1C, so going with that we get a mean of at least 19.6C, which is a clear new record for any month at Kelburn. NIWA has already said the month will be a record high Tmean for Kelburn (in today's DomPost).

[NZstorm]

Amazing to think this Feb was only 0.8C above normal at the airport. Certainly not a recording breaking Feb there!

On the Met Service website, where are those historical temperatures for Auckland taken from?

[Nev]

Apologies folks. You're quite right RWood. Appears all those figures are incorrect.

Edit: I've deleted that initial February, main centres, etc summary. See the corrected version below.

[Nev]

February 2016 looks to be one of NZ's warmest February's on record (if not the warmest). A few heavy rainfall events also saw above normal rainfall in some parts, while some eastern areas remained fairly dry. Auckland, the Waikato and Bay of Plenty were were a little cloudy, but sunshine was generally above normal for most of the rest of the country.

Feb 2016 Climate Anomaly Map ℅ NIWA.gif

Some very preliminary February 2016 figures for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Feb 2016 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        26.1  +2.3     18.5  +2.3     22.3  +2.3     103  143% 
Auckland Aero            25.8  +1.7     18.1  +1.6     21.9  +1.6     100  141%  
Tauranga Aero            25.1  +1.1     18.3  +2.8     21.7  +1.9     145  168%
Hamilton Aero            26.9  +2.2     15.8  +2.9     21.3  +2.5      78  105% 
Hamilton, Ruakura        26.4  +2.1     16.4  +3.1     21.4  +2.6      59   84% 
Wellington, Kelburn      23.3  +2.7     16.0  +2.3     19.6  +2.4      29   42% 
Christchurch Aero        25.1  +3.2     13.3  +1.7     19.2  +2.4      21   48% 
Dunedin, Musselburgh     21.8  +3.3     13.6  +2.1     17.7  +2.7      29   42%
Greymouth Aero           21.5  +1.4     14.8  +2.2     18.1  +1.7     103   64%

Of the six main centres, Kelburn (Wellington) and Musselburgh (Dunedin) recorded their highest ever February mean-temps, Tauranga Aero and Ruakura (Hamilton) their equal highest, Hamilton Aero and Christchurch Aero their 2nd highest, Mangere (Auckland) its 2nd equal highest, and Auckland Aero its 4th highest

[Manukau heads obs]

thats more in line with what I recorded here (i.e 1.9C above average)

[RWood]

There's comment (from NIWA I think) that Nelson has had its hottest summer on record. I'd lay odds that only the Nelson Aero records were considered, thus bypassing 1934-35 which is still NZ's hottest summer. If the Cawthron records were checked and inter-site differences allowed for I'd bet it was warmer then.

[Nev]

According to NIWA, February 2016 was the second warmest month ever recorded in NZ, with a national average temp of 19.46C. Only February 1998 was warmer.

[spwill]

The humidity was significant in Auckland from mid January, I think the average dewpoint temperature would have been over 18C.

[David]

The humidity was significant in Auckland from mid January, I think the average dewpoint temperature would have been over 18C.

I queried my weather database, the average dewpoint for the whole month for my station is 17.9C (average of 8350 records, every 5 minutes).

(but in reality it could have been slightly higher than that, as my humidity sensor hardly ever goes above 96%. Seems to be a common issue with Davis temp/hum sensors).

[Nev]

Here's NIWA's preliminary, 'February National Climate Summary'.

Second warmest February on record for New Zealand.


The national average temp of 19.5C was 2.2C above normal.

The month's highest temp of 35.5C was recorded at Clyde on the 3rd and the lowest of 1.9C was again recorded at Manapouri on the 10th.

Almost every climate station around the country recorded well above normal temperatures for the month. Overall, 28 locations recorded their hottest February mean-temps on record and a further 59 locations experienced near-record February mean temperatures.

Also of note is that Tauranga had its cloudiest February on record, with records extending back to 1933, and Auckland's Whangaparaoa recorded 206mm of rain, from records going back to 1946.