General August Weather

[Razor]

Were up at Mt Cook for a scheduled long weekend til tomorrow afternoon.. Saw a big pyrocumulus go up rapidly in gale fore winds and wondered what it was. Just heard how serious it is, hope everyone down the now closed road is ok

[tornado]

Yes heard about the fire down there. Hopefully it stops spreading and gets put out

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Yes heard about the fire down there. Hopefully it stops spreading and gets put out

Skies clearing here a bit but more smoke is heading away to the south of here and out to sea.
Apparently you can see the smoke from space.
There are a lot of aircraft trying to put the fire out and fortunate Lake Pukaki is nearby for monsoon bucket refill.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Fine warm day here today with it getting up to 23.8C maximum.
Westerly winds and an orangery sky especially this afternoon from a scrub fire in the McKenzie area near SH 80, the road to Aoraki/Mt. Cook.
Picture of smoke looking west from home, here.

[Nev]

Some record August temps recorded yesterday include:

25.1C ... Timaru - highest
23.5C ... Timaru Aero - highest
23.2C ... Oamaru - highest
22.6C ... Oamaru Aero - highest
22.8C ... Ashburton - 2nd highest
22.2C ... Christchurch Aero - 2nd equal highest
22.9C ... Rangiora - 3rd highest

[Chris W]

Heading over Lewis Pass today, going to be breezy.

[Bradley]

EC being very bullish in it's forecast for snow levels tomorrow afternoon with 10cm of snow right down to 100m now being forecast on the plains, seems a tad low when the 850hpa temps are only -5C - perhaps they are forecasting some evaporative cooling in there?

[tornado]

we might get a few brief heavy showers or a brief period of rain in auckland as that front moves in. patchy stuff though. and drier weather after that.

[03Stormchaser]

Strong winds later today arnt going to help fighting that fire. Lucky we have rain forcasted tomorrow.

Sent from my SM-A505GN using Tapatalk

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Nice warm day to finish off winter 2020.
Today's maximum was 24C, slightly higher than other temperatures recorded around the district, although it did cool down abit this afternoon with a light westerly blowing.
Mostly fine with some high cloud.

[Cyclone Tracy]

Local August stats

Mean daily temp = 12.5 (0.3c above the 2018/19 Ave)
Rainfall = 107mm (7mm below 2001-2019 average)
Prevailing wind WSW
3 thunder days. (right on average)
Air pressure ave 1014.0 hPa. (3 hPa above ave)
Humidity 82.4% (0.1% above average)

Year to date running totals

Mean daily temp 0.28c below 2018/19 Ave
Rainfall 519.2mm , 287.8mm below 2001-2019 average.

[Richard]

Aug stats
rainfall ............9.2mm
max temp ...........18.9 on the 19th
min....................-4.5 on the 17th
lowest max temp.......8.9 on both 14th and 8th
warmest min temp............12.5 30th

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Stats from here in Raukapuka.

Ppt - 37.3mm over 11 days
Min - minus 4.1C (Saturday the 15th)
Max - 24C (Monday the 31st)
Highest minimum - 8.8C (Monday the 24th)
Lowest maximum - 9.4C (Thursday the 6th)
11 frosts.

[Nev]

With August being another relatively exceptionally warm month, this looks to be one of the three warmest winters in 110 years of records according to NIWA.

MetService August 2020 Summary – Drier than usual, excluding Northland

Weather maps during August saw more Highs than usual over New Zealand, and a distinct lack of westerly winds. It was an unusually dry August for most regions, with many places recording less than three quarters of normal August rainfall. The lack of rain was most significant over the southern third of the North Island, and for inland and eastern parts of the South Island, with typically only 15-50% of normal August rainfall recorded in these areas.

A notable exception to the unusual dryness occurred in Northland and north Auckland, which clocked up above normal rainfall (more than 120%) associated with intermittent easterly rain.

It was an abnormally warm and rather sunny August. South Island monthly temperatures were particularly notable (between 1 and 1.5C above the August average).

Aug 2020 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.png

Some very preliminary August 2020 figures for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Aug 2020 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       16.1  +1.1     8.6  +0.4    12.4  +0.8    116  102%    154  104%
Auckland Aero           16.0  +1.1     8.7  +0.5    12.4  +0.8    121  109%
Tauranga Aero           16.1  +1.1     8.2  +1.5    12.1  +1.3    106   96%    n/a   n/a
Hamilton Aero           15.6  +0.9     5.2  +0.7    10.4  +0.8    101   85%
Hamilton, Ruakura       16.7  +2.1     5.4  +0.4    11.1  +1.4     98   89%    145  101%
Wellington, Kelburn     13.5  +1.3     8.0  +1.3    10.7  +1.3     41   36%    167  114%
Christchurch Aero       14.0  +1.6     2.8  +0.8     8.4  +1.2     17   27%    178  116%
Dunedin, Musselburgh    12.9  +1.7     5.7  +1.5     9.3  +1.6     38   68%    144  118%
Greymouth Aero          14.3  +1.5     6.4  +1.3    10.4  +1.5    193  101%    148  115%

Edit: Wgtn & Chch & Dunedin sunshine updated.

[Awhituobs]

https://www.weather-display.com/windy/g ... 82020.html

[David]

Howick - August 2020

Summary:
Milder than average, with 2 spells of unsettled wet weather, but no heavy rain events. Slightly drier than average (continuing the year's pattern, with only 1 month out of 8 reaching average rainfall so far).

Stats:
Mean temp = 12.0C (+0.6C)
Mean daily high = 16.3C (+0.7C)
Mean daily low = 8.2C (+0.5C)
Highest temp = 19.2C (29th)
Lowest temp = 2.1C (16th)
Total rainfall= 117mm (-20mm, or 86% of average)
YTD rainfall = 557mm (-335mm, or 62% of average)

[Awhituobs]

I see Niwa has stated it was the warmest winter on record
(despite last years supposed lingering SSW event and despite a big solar minimum...the warming trend continues unabated)

[Cyclone Tracy]

I see Niwa has stated it was the warmest winter on record
(despite last years supposed lingering SSW event and despite a big solar minimum...the warming trend continues unabated)

I just had a look at year to date temps on NIWA 7 station published data for the last 5 years and 2016, 2018 & 2019 are all warmer than 2020 by at least 0.4c until the end of August. The devil is in the detail, don't just read the headlines.

[Nev]

I see Niwa has stated it was the warmest winter on record
(despite last years supposed lingering SSW event and despite a big solar minimum...the warming trend continues unabated)

I just had a look at year to date temps on NIWA 7 station published data for the last 5 years and 2016, 2018 & 2019 are all warmer than 2020 by at least 0.4c until the end of August. The devil is in the detail, don't just read the headlines.

Worth noting that 2016, 2018, 1998 and 2019 are NZ's 4 warmest years on record. Also, by my calculations, 2020 so far is currently only between about 0.14C to 0.22C cooler than those 4 years, and to date tracking as our 7th warmest year on record. However, with spring forecast to be warmer than normal, this year could easily end up as our warmest on record.

NIWA 7SS National Average Annual Mean Temps (°C):

2016 .. 13.45 .. +0.84 ... Warmest on record
2018 .. 13.41 .. +0.80 ... 2nd-equal warmest on record
1998 .. 13.41 .. +0.80 ... 2nd-equal warmest on record
2019 .. 13.37 .. +0.76 ... 4th warmest on record
1999 .. 13.35 .. +0.74 ... 5th warmest on record
2013 .. 13.33 .. +0.72 ... 6th warmest on record
2020 .. 13.04 .. +0.62 ... (to Aug 31)
2017 .. 13.15 .. +0.54 ... 7th warmest

Edit: Amended 2020 YTD mean-temp error.

[Cyclone Tracy]

I just had a look at year to date temps on NIWA 7 station published data for the last 5 years and 2016, 2018 & 2019 are all warmer than 2020 by at least 0.4c until the end of August. The devil is in the detail, don't just read the headlines.

Worth noting that 2016, 2018, 1998 and 2019 are NZ's 4 warmest years on record. Also, by my calculations, 2020 so far is currently only between about 0.14C to 0.22C cooler than those 4 years, and to date tracking as our 7th warmest year on record. However, with spring forecast to be warmer than normal, this year could easily end up as our warmest on record.

NIWA 7SS National Average Annual Mean Temps (°C):

2016 .. 13.45 .. +0.84 ... Warmest on record
2018 .. 13.41 .. +0.80 ... 2nd-equal warmest on record
1998 .. 13.41 .. +0.80 ... 2nd-equal warmest on record
2019 .. 13.37 .. +0.76 ... 4th warmest on record
1999 .. 13.35 .. +0.74 ... 5th warmest on record
2013 .. 13.33 .. +0.72 ... 6th warmest on record
2020 .. 13.23 .. +0.62 ... (to Aug 31)
2017 .. 13.15 .. +0.54 ... 7th warmest

Current mean temp for NZ from NIWA 7SS at 31 August 2020 is 13.04 based of NIWA's published monthly data. Jan 17.20, Feb 18.20, Mar 15.40, Apr 13.50, May 11.30, Jun 10.00, Jul 8.60, Aug 10.10. How did you get 13.23 year to date? My point above compares up until 31st August as an end of year comparison is impossible at this stage of the year.

As for my point above comparing 2016, 2018, 2019, 31st August to 2020 31st August anomaly. Here are my workings ranging from 0.34 to 0.49 above.

[Nev]

Current mean temp for NZ from NIWA 7SS at 31 August 2020 is 13.04 based of NIWA's published monthly data. Jan 17.20, Feb 18.20, Mar 15.40, Apr 13.50, May 11.30, Jun 10.00, Jul 8.60, Aug 10.10. How did you get 13.23 year to date?

Yes, agree with your YTD mean temp of 13.04C ... I should have added the YTD anomaly of +0.62C to the YTD norm, rather than the annual norm. Have amended that error in my original post.