General December Weather

[Richard]

Nice photos David.

Another coolish day again today which is nice for working in.

[Thunder081]

That low off the east coast of the north island is tightening up nicely. Now blowing 45 knots on the marine traffic wind obs at 9am. Not too many ships wanting to take it on

Whats the website for those wind obs?

[Orion]

Beautiful photos David - looks very lush

[Cyclone Tracy]

That low off the east coast of the north island is tightening up nicely. Now blowing 45 knots on the marine traffic wind obs at 9am. Not too many ships wanting to take it on

Whats the website for those wind obs?

Marinetraffic.com

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/hom ... 4.4/zoom:5

[Thunder081]

Whats the website for those wind obs?

Marinetraffic.com

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/hom ... 4.4/zoom:5

Thanks

[NZstorm]

Looks like a wet start to 2018 coming up for northern areas. Could be a heavy rainfall event for Northland about Tuesday/Wednesday? Instabilty nationwide, but I suspect a lot of the storm action will be in the ranges.

[treetopkk]

Blocking pattern continues, the last week most of the country on the "cold'"side of the high rather than the warm sector exp early Dec.Looking forward to the incoming stability, not a lot of isobars so should be good for heating and convergents provided we dont get too much high cloud "clutter".Much of the northern Waikato looking very dry now.

[NZstorm]

On the airport data, Central Otago was the the warmest region today. For example Wanaka and Alexandra on 28C currently. Upper North Island the other warm region with Hamilton and Tauranga 26C. Auckland Ardmore on 25C.

[spwill]

No sea breeze today so beaches in the east were sheltered with the fresh SW breeze. I spent the afternoon at Oneroa beach on Waiheke Island , beautiful weather.

[David]

Wasn't expecting it to be this warm today. 27.8C max for Howick, the second highest of the summer so far.

[Richard]

Been warm here but too on 27.2deg, not as uncomfortably hot as it has been lately though

[dogmelon]

The NEer in Chc is is most disagreeable today.

[03Stormchaser]

The NEer in Chc is is most disagreeable today.

Christchurch biggest downfall is the NE winds

[spwill]

Both Grey Lynn and Howick showing a December mean of 20.1C, a very dry and sunny month as it has been around a good part of NZ.

[RWood]

Both New Plymouth and Richmond should exceed the old NZ record December sunshine total - though if a reasonable adjustment to the totals to making allowance for increases after conversion to electronic methods is made, that would not be the case.

[Orion]

A few spots of rain here at around 9:30am;
overcast;
not so very warm at 18.8°C just now.

[Orion]

Southerly bustling through here briskly now.

[David]

Went out to Tiritiri Matangi Island (bird sanctuary) today. Was a nice day for it. Couple photos below. One showing a Stevenson screen near the Lighthouse.

[Orion]

Nice photos, David. Tiritiri Matangi is on my list of places to visit.

Temp was 26° here when I posted approx. twenty minutes ago, now 20°.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Back from UHutt/Wellington region today after Christmas up there with the in-laws.
Boy,did it rain up there on Boxing Day especially around Wellington
More rain fell there in 24hrs than in the last 40 odd days
Anyway, finished the year off here with 842.3mm of rain here, with 41.3mm for Dec.

[RWood]

Back from UHutt/Wellington region today after Christmas up there with the in-laws.
Boy,did it rain up there on Boxing Day especially around Wellington
More rain fell there in 24hrs than in the last 40 odd days
Anyway, finished the year off here with 842.3mm of rain here, with 41.3mm for Dec.

Bad timing - 24mm on 26th, month total still modest at 46mm. Temps didn't recover till the 30th, when it was nice at the beaches. Getting warm in the Manawatu, Palm. Nth now 27C. Should get warmer here later afternoon with blue skies and switch from SE to NE.

[Nev]

December 2017 was exceptionally warm and sunny, with record low rainfalls in some parts.

Dec 2017 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.gif

Some very preliminary December 2017 figures for the main centres:

In terms of mean temps, it was the warmest Dec on record for Auckland's Mangere, Auckland Aero, Tauranga Aero, Dunedin's Musselburgh and equal warmest for Christchurch Aero, the 2nd warmest for Wellington's Kelburn and Hamilton Aero, and the 3rd warmest for Hamilton's Ruakura.

It was also the driest Dec on record at Auckland's Mangere, Auckland Aero and Hamilton Aero (note that 55mm of Ruakura's 63mm fell during a 2 hour isolated downpour on the 2nd).

Code: Select all

Dec 2017 Average Temps, Rainfall, Sunshine and departures from 1981-2010 normals ℅ NIWA

Site                     T-max °C      T-min °C      T-mean °C     Rain mm      Sun hrs

Auckland, Mangere       24.8  +3.2    16.3  +1.5    20.5  +2.3      9   11%    289  146%
Auckland Aero           24.9  +3.1    16.1  +1.2    20.5  +2.2      8    9%
Tauranga Aero           24.3  +2.1    15.6  +1.7    19.9  +1.9     29   30%    n/a   n/a
Hamilton Aero           25.1  +2.9    13.0  +1.4    19.0  +2.1     15   15%
Hamilton, Ruakura       25.6  +3.6    12.7  +0.7    19.2  +2.2     63   65%    271  131%
Wellington, Kelburn     21.5  +2.9    14.4  +2.1    17.9  +2.5     48   58%    257  115%
Christchurch Aero       24.0  +2.9    12.1  +1.6    18.1  +2.3     38   81%    263  120%
Dunedin, Musselburgh    20.3  +3.0    12.8  +2.4    16.6  +2.8     43   54%    239  143%
Greymouth Aero          20.7  +2.5    13.1  +1.9    16.9  +2.2    110   44%    304  182%

[jamie]

Yea the fact that Ruakura and the airport both caught a thunderstorm means it gives a false impression as what the area had. They were very isolated and I only had 14mm for the month with the biggest fall being 4mm if I’m right in my memory.

[Tornado Tim]

Yea the fact that Ruakura and the airport both caught a thunderstorm means it gives a false impression as what the area had. They were very isolated and I only had 14mm for the month with the biggest fall being 4mm if I’m right in my memory.

Agreed, its not representative of the area, the grass has fully dried off in quite allot of areas in the Waikato.
Your totals Jamie and mine are similar.

[Nev]

Here's NIWA's preliminary, 'December 2017 National Climate Summary'.

A very warm and dry month


The national average temp of 18.1C was 2.4C above normal, making it NZ's 2nd warmest December on record.

The month's highest temp of 34.7C was recorded at Waiau on the 8th, and the lowest temp of 0.2C was recorded at both Mt Cook Aero and Lake Tekapo on the 20th.

A plethora of locations around the country recorded either their warmest or near-warmest December on record. Cromwell experienced 23 consecutive days where the maximum temperature reached at least 25.0C dating back to mid-November.

A dry spell at Christchurch Airport reached 47 days, the longest on record there. In the lower North Island, dry spells in Wellington (30 days), Paraparaumu (35 days), and Martinborough (35 days) ended on 13 December. In Whanganui, a 42-day dry spell came to a close on 19 December.