A warmer than normal March overall. Also mostly drier than normal, except for western areas from Waikato to the West Coast.
MetService March 2021 Summary - A month of two halves
March started off wild, windy and wet for western regions south of Auckland, due to a combination of stormy Tasman Sea and unsettled Southern Ocean. However, intense High pressure then became the name of the game over New Zealand from the middle of the month, bringing an extended dry run to most of the country. Soil moisture levels were running below normal for the time of year in most regions, with the exception of the West Coast South Island. The month ended with high humidity and localised thunderstorms over the north and west of the North Island.
Overall, it was a drier than normal March in northern and eastern regions of both Islands, with only the West Coast of the South Island, Nelson, and also western areas of the North Island between Waikato and Palmerston North picking up near normal or slightly above normal rainfall totals.
Mild northwesterlies for the first week of the month produced unusual warmth in eastern regions, before temperatures fell sharply in the second week of the month. However, temperatures settled back to more typical levels across the back half of March. In broad terms, monthly temperatures ended up close to average across the North Island, as well as Nelson and Marlborough, but slightly above average across the remainder of the South Island.
Mar 2021 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.png
Preliminary March 2021 figures for the main centres:
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Mar 2021 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 23.3 +0.9 14.7 +0.1 19.0 +0.5 48 57% 192 100%
Auckland Aero 23.6 +1.0 15.2 +0.3 19.4 +0.6 49 66%
Tauranga Aero 22.9 +0.4 14.3 +0.5 18.6 +0.4 35 36% n/a n/a
Hamilton Aero 23.3 +0.4 11.5 +0.5 17.4 +0.5 172 204%
Hamilton, Ruakura 23.7 +1.0 12.0 +0.6 17.8 +0.7 155 194% 178 92%
Wellington, Kelburn 19.1 0.0 13.0 +0.4 16.1 +0.3 85 100% 211 103%
Christchurch Aero 21.7 +1.4 10.0 +0.4 15.8 +0.9 19 41% 213 111%
Dunedin, Musselburgh 18.7 +1.4 11.5 +1.3 15.1 +1.4 13 20% 189 131%
Greymouth Aero 19.4 +0.5 11.6 +0.6 15.5 +0.6 244 138% 186 116%
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