Very dry beginning to 2019

[cbm]

Thought we could use a topic to discuss/record numbers of this very dry start to 2019. The one from 2013 in the archive has been a good reference to compare to what is occurring now.

My station has now gone 27 days without measurable precipitation. Last was 1.2mm on the 24th Jan. Last of any significance was 20.4 on the 14th Jan, so 37 days ago.

Just 31mm YTD. Figures for Hamilton Aero are very similar.
Ruakura got 0.4mm on the 7th Feb, but just 23.2mm YTD

Tauranga aero is on just 15.6mm YTD. Auckland Central (Motat) 22.8mm YTD

I notice some tree leaves are browning and dropping. Grass is starting to look as bad as the peak of 2013 dry.

10-20mm this weekend is not going to go far.

The figures for Tasman/Nelson must be quite extreme, if someone has them.

[NZstorm]

There is plenty of moisture lower down in the ground so trees look unaffected by the dry spell in Auckland. Grass is browning off though.

I am expecting up to 10mm for Auckland in the coming few days, enough to water the lawn.

[jamie]

This dry has nothing on 2008 however there is an interesting trend here. Had December not been such a weird and wacky month for rain, we would be far worse than 2008 by now. September and October were both well below normal. November normal. December exceptionally high. Jan well below and now feb well below.

I look forward to seeing these lows developing in the Tasman I keep hearing will happen. The next week though looks stable.


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[spwill]

Auckland Mangere had its wettest December on record, 224 mm, although much of that fell in a day or two. Mainly dry weather since Boxing Day, SW winds and high sunshine hrs to help dry things out.

[David]

I notice some tree leaves are browning and dropping. Grass is starting to look as bad as the peak of 2013 dry.

Noticed some slack looking leaves around the area while walking this evening, so certainly some vegetation starting to feel the dry. We're on 28mm for the year.

[cbm]

This dry has nothing on 2008 however there is an interesting trend here. Had December not been such a weird and wacky month for rain, we would be far worse than 2008 by now. September and October were both well below normal. November normal. December exceptionally high. Jan well below and now feb well below.

I look forward to seeing these lows developing in the Tasman I keep hearing will happen. The next week though looks stable.


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I accidentally downloaded the daily rainfall from Ruakura from 1 Jan 2008 until today. Lucky even the free Cliflo subscription is quite generous so won't run out of rows at current rate.

Here is this year so far compared to other dry years 2013 and 2008. Are actually behind. Agree would be far worse if had not had that very wet December.

rainfall.jpg

[cbm]

I notice some tree leaves are browning and dropping. Grass is starting to look as bad as the peak of 2013 dry.

Noticed some slack looking leaves around the area while walking this evening, so certainly some vegetation starting to feel the dry. We're on 28mm for the year.

It is the case that 95% of trees and shrubs look remarkably fine as there is still water in the ground from the very wet December, but I'm seeing a few suffering with leaves tuning a recycled paper colour brown, various factors must have kept them a bit shallow rooted and vulnerable.

[Razor]

Well we are running 200mm less than this time last year.

[cbm]

Well today ends the sequence for my station at 28 days. Some data mining shows that nearby Ruakura saw a full 40 days withtout measureable precip from Feb 5th to March 16th 2013. I was at a public event when that finally broke on the 17th and the announcer said " well this is what rain looks like folks, could you still remember?"

[Nev]

Taken from some MetService tweets today:

Today ends Hamilton Aero's 3rd longest run of dry days (<1mm) since records began in 1935.
36 days ending 22 February 2019
40 days ending 17 March 2013
43 days ending 05 February 1955

Today also ends Tauranga's 3rd longest run of dry days (<1mm) since records began in 1910.
36 days ending 22 February 2019
37 days ending 16 February 1978
42 days ending 17 May 1919

Edit: Amended typo for ending date in Feb 1955.

[RWood]

Taken from some MetService tweets today:

Today ends Hamilton Aero's 3rd longest run of dry days (<1mm) since records began in 1935.
36 days ending 22 February 2019
40 days ending 17 March 2013
43 days ending 43 February 1955

Today also ends Tauranga's 3rd longest run of dry days (<1mm) since records began in 1910.
36 days ending 22 February 2019
37 days ending 16 February 1978
42 days ending 17 May 1919

1955 Nev? Can only find daily rainfalls for Ruakura back then, and it didn't appear to have any super long stretches of dry days in Jan-Feb 1955.

[Nev]

1955 Nev? Can only find daily rainfalls for Ruakura back then, and it didn't appear to have any super long stretches of dry days in Jan-Feb 1955.

Oops, I've amended that ending date typo to 05 Feb 1955 on my original post. Otherwise correct.

Code is 2110 for the Hamilton Aero site from Mar 1935 to Sep 1988. Note that Ruakura recorded 11.4mm in the 24 hrs to 9am on 22 Jan 1955, whereas Hamilton Aero recorded nothing that day.

[RWood]

1955 Nev? Can only find daily rainfalls for Ruakura back then, and it didn't appear to have any super long stretches of dry days in Jan-Feb 1955.

Oops, I've amended that ending date typo to 05 Feb 1955 on my original post. Otherwise correct.

Code is 2110 for the Hamilton Aero site from Mar 1935 to Sep 1988. Note that Ruakura recorded 11.4mm in the 24 hrs to 9am on 22 Jan 1955, whereas Hamilton Aero recorded nothing that day.

Got it - I was searching by region and missed the Aero in the long result list. The summary for February 1955 mentions the erratic distribution of rainfall in some parts of the country:

" … The Auckland and Hawkes Bay provinces were drier than usual by at least 25% except in a few localities, including Auckland City, which were affected by excessive local downpours."

"There was an unusually heavy local downpour at Auckland City on the 5th, when amounts varying from 4” to 6” fell in the afternoon and early evening (5.18” at Albert Park), while a few miles away in the Waitakere ranges, there was little or no rain."

[cbm]

Metservice tweet.

I suspect similar could be said about Auckland and Hamilton and a several other places. I'm still only on 239.8 mm YTD. More normal amounts of rain per week seem to have started now, but got a lot of catching up to do.

Capture.JPG

[James]

Two days ago our local paper was talking about a looming drought in Hawke's Bay.
It hasn't stopped raining since.....

[James]

(be careful what you wish for)

[Chris W]

Interesting that Chch had so much rain in the early-winter storm on June 1st and virtually nothing since with little on the horizon for the next week under the high. Not too unusual for our rain to be like that, but I still find it interesting when we get that. I think we've had a relatively average year's rainfall compared to you guys up north though, so just a mini dry spell by comparison.

[cbm]

Last rain for the first half of year falling this morning, by the looks. Just 250.2mm YTD as of midnight last night. So going to have ~255mm for the first half of the year! Context is region of average rainfall of 1100mm and lowest annual in 100 odd years of records 830mm. Other upper NI locations notably Whangarei simillarlly affected. Expect some media interest in this at end of June.

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[jamie]

Last rain for the first half of year falling this morning, by the looks. Just 250.2mm YTD as of midnight last night. So going to have ~255mm for the first half of the year! Context is region of average rainfall of 1100mm and lowest annual in 100 odd years of records 830mm. Other upper NI locations notably Whangarei simillarlly affected. Expect some media interest in this at end of June.

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Yea totally crazy isn’t it. We have dust on our peat soil here. I’m sure rain will come and make up for for some of what we haven’t had yet.
When does a prolonged dry period like this get called a drought? I would argue we are in the thick of a drought, even though everything is lush and green.


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[cbm]

Last rain for the first half of year falling this morning, by the looks. Just 250.2mm YTD as of midnight last night. So going to have ~255mm for the first half of the year! Context is region of average rainfall of 1100mm and lowest annual in 100 odd years of records 830mm. Other upper NI locations notably Whangarei simillarlly affected. Expect some media interest in this at end of June.

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Yea totally crazy isn’t it. We have dust on our peat soil here. I’m sure rain will come and make up for for some of what we haven’t had yet.
When does a prolonged dry period like this get called a drought? I would argue we are in the thick of a drought, even though everything is lush and green.


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I suspect the grass is for now, actually growing better than it might normally do in late June as the soil is not waterlogged. But if we have no more than an average next few months then it goes dry again by summer, it's going to hit hard.

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[cbm]

As I predicted, metservice onto this on twitter now.

[jamie]

I’m 54% of average for the first 6 months of the year. 581mm is average to date on my data. I’ve had 312 year to date so far. We almost had that amount of rain in December alone haha.


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[tornado]

yeah. december last year stole most of this years rain and thunder

[Cyclone Tracy]

YTD rainfall = 272.2mm (572mm is average to end of June). Record lowest start since my records began at this location in 2001.

[Richard]

My first 6 months of rainfall is 215.2mm