General December Weather

[03Stormchaser]

Should be another 30C day tomorrow, finally summer has arrived. Much cooler on NYE before the warmth returns

[cbm]

Great conditions for a late afternoon kayak fish on Raglan harbour, no sea breeze, almost no wind, unusual for time of day at this time of year. Came home with feed of snapper too.

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[NZstorm]

Quite hot day here in Timaru. Consensus on PWS is 30C.

I was in Mosgiel yesterday and was over 30C there.

[Chris Raine]

Another front through .Now SW and still no rain .The forecasted rain just does not appear .Still maybe some rain tomorrow(forecasted) .Family now on rations re water use and what is left in the tank

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Quite hot day here in Timaru. Consensus on PWS is 30C.

I was in Mosgiel yesterday and was over 30C there.

I peaked at 30C exactly here in Raukapuka but now a light southerly breeze is moving through cooling the temperature. Tomorrow. I see there is a low to moderate Ts risk for down here tomorrow.
You never know what might come out of the 4 Peaks or Mt. Peel, what I call "Thunderstorm Corner"
Will you be around for it?

[Storm Struck]

It hasnt reached the expected 30c here today due to high cloud cover, but its still very warm and muggy on 25C currently and thats without the sun shining.
Id say it will be another warm night tonight.
Watch for a few afternoon/evening heavy showers hail and thunder for inland areas tomorrow.
The best spots to see any action will be mid canterbury where a cell or two might skirt out to Ashburton Dunsandel areas, instability numbers are the key tomorrow combined with and incoming cooler southerly.
Mid canterbury seems to have the pick for moisture totals tomorrow, despite the moderate risk being further south on MS.
Abit of action to see out the year will be very much appreciated.
Looking very hot into the first few weeks of January with some 30C to 35C days possible,im noting upper air at 500mb of -6C coming in over the country from the 7th Jan.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Another front through .Now SW and still no rain .The forecasted rain just does not appear .Still maybe some rain tomorrow(forecasted) .Family now on rations re water use and what is left in the tank

No offence there, Chris, but you are not living up to your surname
i liked your comments about working in the Met Office in the 70's

[Chris Raine]

Steady rain falling in Otago but just not here .Thick altostratus overhead ,My wife thinks it will rain tonight .Just a waiting game .The lawns are browning off quite significantly in the last seven days

[cbm]

Quite a stubborn anit-cyclonic gloom today. Even BOP West of Tauranga and Eastern Coromandel have not really shaken it off going by Sat pics. Sun coming out as I type though.

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[NZstorm]

Quite hot day here in Timaru. Consensus on PWS is 30C.

I was in Mosgiel yesterday and was over 30C there.

You never know what might come out of the 4 Peaks or Mt. Peel, what I call "Thunderstorm Corner"
Will you be around for it?

I'm back in Auckland today John. Looks like I didn't miss anything, but I am sure el nino will produce some set ups in January. South Island very green this summer, even places like Tekapo.

[Chris Raine]

Finally got 3.5 mm of rain last night .Still very much touch and go .The forecasted westerlies will need some moisture in them to get my water tank back to a sensible level .

Happy New year everyone

[Thunder081]

Current conditions are good for the NYE fireworks display in Wellington. Cloudy and the northwester isn't that strong. Happy new year all.

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[Nev]

December 2018 was a generally exceptionally warm month, with periods of heavy rain and thunder for most North Island areas and the northeast of the South Island.

Dec 2018 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.gif

Some very preliminary Dec 2018 figures for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Dec 2018 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       22.2  +0.6    15.7  +0.9    18.9  +0.7    225  263%    218  110%
Auckland Aero           22.3  +0.5    15.8  +0.9    19.1  +0.7    206  238%
Tauranga Aero           23.0  +0.8    15.5  +1.6    19.3  +1.3    278  294%    243  104%
Hamilton Aero           23.0  +0.8    13.1  +1.5    18.1  +1.2    179  170%
Hamilton, Ruakura       24.1  +2.1    13.0  +1.0    18.6  +1.6    184  188%    218  105%
Wellington, Kelburn     19.9  +1.3    13.7  +1.4    16.8  +1.4     86  104%    189   85%
Christchurch Aero       19.9  -1.2    12.3  +1.8    16.1  +0.3     69  147%    156   71%
Dunedin, Musselburgh    18.4  +1.1    11.9  +1.5    15.2  +1.4     57   71%    212  126%
Greymouth Aero          20.1  +1.9    13.1  +1.9    16.6  +1.9    147   58%    229  137%

Note: Table updated to incl. new Mangere site figures.

[Thunder081]

2018 was a good year for wild weather but there have been better years. Some of the highlights this year were ex-tc's Gita & fehi, the storm in early January, late May thundery sou westers!!!! (those were amazing), tornadoes in New Plymouth & Ohope and getting to see velocity data for those and also the tornado in South Taranaki that happened in late May. Also the thunderstorms in December as well where even Southland was quite active for a few days.

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[David]

A wet end to a wet year here. Recorded 234mm here in December, taking the yearly total to 1755mm.

[Cyclone Tracy]

Main 2018 Year stats from my PWS

Daily mean temp = 16.5c, 1.4c above normal
Highest Temp 31.2c
Lowest Temp 2.5c
Highest Dew Point 24.4c
Rainfall 1366m, 212mm above the local average
Windiest month – December
Prevailing wind – SW for 7 months, WSW 2 months, WNW, 2 months, ENE 1 month

& Thunder days 18

[RWood]

Cloudy end to a cloudy year in Wellington, 3rd in a row significantly below average - and the 6th such in the last 9. Also wetter than average.

[Chris Raine]

Finished December with 61mm of rain .Mean max 22.1 Mean min 9.8 Mean =16.0.Grass mean 6.5 Little rain after 5th December so land is drying out and tank water getting low around the district .5 days of thunder reported .Highest temp 29.8 Lowest 2.2 Grass -2.4.At least we aren't mowing the lawns every two days now

[NZstorm]

Grey Lynn means for December, min 14.9C, max 23.6C. Highest temp 27.8C, lowest 10.5C.

[cbm]

2018 is first full year have had functioning recording equipment.
Summary of the year:

Leamington NZ. Urban Sited Passive Screened Temperature Sensor.

Air frosts:
Total 8
May 30 -1.0
May 31 -1.8
June 1 -1.6
June 22 -0.9
June 27 -1.8
June 28 -0.8
June 30 -2.3
July 4 -2.2

>30C days:
Total 7
Jan 21 30.5
Jan 26 30.8
Jan 27 30.7
Jan 28 31.6
Jan 29 30.9
Jan 30 30.6
Feb 12 30.1

Rainfall
(Recorded 10km away in the Kaipaki district, 60m A.S.L. flat terrain away from hills)
Total 1335.4mm
Monthly Totals:
Jan 86.6
Feb 182.8
Mar 41.0
Apr 89.4
May 132.2
Jun 134.6
Jul 117.2
Aug 114.0
Sept 45.8
Oct 61.8
Nov 68.4
Dec 261.4

[Nev]

Here's NIWA's 2018 National Climate Summary

2018: New Zealand’s equal-2nd warmest year on record

Given that Mangere (one of the 7-station temp series) looked to have been under-recording by about 0.6-0.7C for at least 4 months of the year, I'd say 2018 may well have been NZ’s warmest year on record…

The nationwide average temperature for 2018, calculated using stations in NIWA’s seven-station temperature series which began in 1909, was 13.41°C (0.80°C above the 1981–2010 annual average). This makes 2018 the equal 2nd-warmest year on record along with 1998, only placing behind 2016 which had a nationwide average temperature of 13.45°C (0.84°C above the 1981–2010 annual average).

[TonyT]

This might be a useful resource for people wanting to visualise 2018's weather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEoPNLr ... Eof_wvJdvE

[cbm]

Given that Mangere (one of the 7-station temp series) looked to have been under-recording by about 0.6-0.7C for at least 4 months of the year, I'd say 2018 may well have been NZ’s warmest year on record…

Very good point. I take it they never got back to you with any results of the investigation they were going to carry out?

[Nev]

^ No, maybe should follow it up though. However, Mangere's Oct and Nov temps did suddenly become more in line with nearby sites, so it must've been fixed. No data available for the last 9 days of Dec though, so Dec's summary will be interesting...

[Orion]

Here's NIWA's 2018 National Climate Summary

2018: New Zealand’s equal-2nd warmest year on record

Given that Mangere (one of the 7-station temp series) looked to have been under-recording by about 0.6-0.7C for at least 4 months of the year, I'd say 2018 may well have been NZ’s warmest year on record…

The nationwide average temperature for 2018, calculated using stations in NIWA’s seven-station temperature series which began in 1909, was 13.41°C (0.80°C above the 1981–2010 annual average). This makes 2018 the equal 2nd-warmest year on record along with 1998, only placing behind 2016 which had a nationwide average temperature of 13.45°C (0.84°C above the 1981–2010 annual average).

Which the Herald reports as

0.8C above its records since 1909

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/arti ... d=12187113