Here's some photos I took today of those 'mare's tails" showing up the very cold air up there and a photo of a burn-off near Orari which produced a bit of a pyrocumulus cloud this afternoon before the warm front moved across and covered the sky with a sort of a mackeral Sc cloud cover. It's clearing away now.
MetService Summary
February 2019 - An extended dry and hot run:
High pressure prevailed across New Zealand during February, even as the tropics spawned several tropical cyclones (Neil, Oma and Pola, all of which stayed away from our shores).
A State of Emergency was declared in Nelson Tasman on 6 February, due to large wild fires. These fires were primed by the heat wave of late January and were exacerbated by an extended run of hot and dry weather during the first three weeks of February.
The run of drier weather was ended on 22 February by tropical moisture across the north of the country, and a brief wet and cold southerly in the south. The 36 day dry run was notable for many parts of the country. It was the 3rd longest dry spell for both Hamilton and Tauranga, in records that started in 1935 and 1910,respectively. Blenheim also recorded its 3rd longest dry spell on record (39 days). For Nelson, it was the driest January,February period on record, with only 14mm recorded at the airport since the start of the year.
Code: Select all
Feb 2019 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 25.2 +1.4 15.9 -0.3 20.6 +0.6 22 31% 251 128%
Auckland Aero 25.2 +1.1 16.4 -0.1 20.8 +0.5 21 29%
Tauranga Aero 26.0 +2.0 16.0 +0.5 21.0 +1.2 19 22% n/a n/a
Hamilton Aero 27.0 +2.3 12.4 -0.5 19.7 +0.9 18 24%
Hamilton, Ruakura 27.5 +3.4 12.7 -0.6 20.2 +1.4 14 21% 239 124%
Wellington, Kelburn 20.9 +0.3 14.3 +0.6 17.6 +0.4 31 44% 246 117%
Christchurch Aero 24.5 +2.6 11.0 -0.6 17.7 +0.9 19 44% 248 127%
Dunedin, Musselburgh 20.2 +1.7 12.1 +0.6 16.1 +1.1 19 29% 224 143%
Greymouth Aero 19.9 -0.2 12.5 -0.1 16.2 -0.2 107 66% 239 134%
I make it 27.5C including the missing data, which (along with 2013) would make it Ruakura's 2nd equal-highest Feb mean T-max after 27.8C in Feb 1928, since records began in 1906.
The average up to and including the 21st was 28.7. So if the weather pattern had held for 1 more week.. But of course you can say something like that about some aspect of most months.Nev wrote: ↑Fri 01/03/2019 16:25I make it 27.5C including the missing data, which (along with 2013) would make it Ruakura's 2nd equal-highest Feb mean T-max after 27.8C in Feb 1928, since records began in 1906.
Its highest all-time monthly T-max is 28.1C in Jan 1928, and 3rd highest is 27.6C in Jan 1935.
Kelburn total including 28th was 246 hours. The Jan-Feb total there was the best since 2013 though 2016-2018 didn't provide much competition. 289 hours at Blenheim and Richmond, the latter totalling 644 hours for Jan+Feb. The highest total recorded in the manual history was 595 hours at Mt John in 1973. Even allowing for the typical increase with electronic measurement the 2019 value should be considered a record-breaker.Nev wrote: ↑Fri 01/03/2019 15:30 February was a mild, sunny and generally very dry month…
MetService Summary
February 2019 - An extended dry and hot run:
High pressure prevailed across New Zealand during February, even as the tropics spawned several tropical cyclones (Neil, Oma and Pola, all of which stayed away from our shores).
A State of Emergency was declared in Nelson Tasman on 6 February, due to large wild fires. These fires were primed by the heat wave of late January and were exacerbated by an extended run of hot and dry weather during the first three weeks of February.
The run of drier weather was ended on 22 February by tropical moisture across the north of the country, and a brief wet and cold southerly in the south. The 36 day dry run was notable for many parts of the country. It was the 3rd longest dry spell for both Hamilton and Tauranga, in records that started in 1935 and 1910,respectively. Blenheim also recorded its 3rd longest dry spell on record (39 days). For Nelson, it was the driest January,February period on record, with only 14mm recorded at the airport since the start of the year.
Feb 2019 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.gif
Some very preliminary Feb 2019 figures for the main centres:
*Wgtn Missing 1 day of sun data.Code: Select all
Feb 2019 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 25.2 +1.4 15.9 -0.3 20.6 +0.6 22 31% 251 128% Auckland Aero 25.2 +1.1 16.4 -0.1 20.8 +0.5 21 29% Tauranga Aero 25.9 +1.9 16.0 +0.5 21.0 +1.2 19 22% n/a n/a Hamilton Aero 27.0 +2.3 12.0 -0.9 19.4 +0.6 18 24% Hamilton, Ruakura 27.5 +3.2 12.7 -0.6 20.1 +1.3 14 21% 239 124% Wellington, Kelburn 20.9 +0.3 14.3 +0.6 17.6 +0.4 31 44% 233* 114% Christchurch Aero 24.4 +2.5 10.9 -0.7 17.7 +0.9 19 44% 248 127% Dunedin, Musselburgh 20.2 +1.7 12.1 +0.6 16.1 +1.1 19 29% 224 143% Greymouth Aero 19.9 -0.2 12.4 -0.2 16.2 -0.2 107 66% 239 134%
Thanks Rupert - have updated that Wgtn sunshine figure (was missing the 7th)...RWood wrote: ↑Sat 02/03/2019 10:20 Kelburn total including 28th was 246 hours. The Jan-Feb total there was the best since 2013 though 2016-2018 didn't provide much competition. 289 hours at Blenheim and Richmond, the latter totalling 644 hours for Jan+Feb. The highest total recorded in the manual history was 595 hours at Mt John in 1973. Even allowing for the typical increase with electronic measurement the 2019 value should be considered a record-breaker.
