Great Barrier Island climate

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wembley
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Great Barrier Island climate

Unread post by wembley »

I read online that Great Barrier Island's climate was warmer than Auckland's due to being slap bang in the middle of the local warm ocean current. If that is the case, would GBI's climate be a true humid subtropical one (Cfa) under Koppen?
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Willoughby
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Re: Great Barrier Island climate

Unread post by Willoughby »

It seems by a 30-year average, it's warmest month February is just not warm enough (needs a temp average of 22°C minimum in the warmest month):
https://www.weatherbase.com/weather/wea ... 099&units=

However, with recent warming trends over the last few years, it could very well have made it to a Cfa climate. Though I would hazard a guess it'd be easier for some east Auckland stations to get there with higher day time temps, but still warm night time temps (Mechanics Bay etc).
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Re: Great Barrier Island climate

Unread post by Nev »

^ Note that the Port Fitzroy figures shown on that link look to be based on NIWA's 1981-2010 averages, with the obvious exception of its way too low average monthly and annual rainfall figures (all exactly 27.8% of what they should be).

Port Fitzroy on the island's west coast is also unfortunately the only site NIWA has that includes temp records, and they only range from 1961 to 2003, with quite a few days of missing data, particularly in the latter years. It does, however, have several other historical rainfall sites around the island.

Below are the correct rainfall figures and some mean temp comparisons with Auckland Aero:

Code: Select all

Port Fitzroy vs. Auckland Aero - 1981-2010 averages

Site	Jan 	Feb 	Mar 	Apr 	May 	Jun 	Jul 	Aug 	Sep 	Oct 	Nov 	Dec 	Annual

Rainfall mm
NZAA 	66.1 	71.3 	75.1 	85.0 	109.6 	107.7 	133.1 	110.8 	90.5 	93.9 	71.7 	86.6 	1101.4
Fitz 	111.8 	128.1 	141.7 	133.6 	144.6 	180.1 	223.1 	186.4 	139.8 	115.4 	120.0 	115.1 	1739.7

Tmean °C
NZAA 	19.8 	20.3 	18.8 	16.3 	14.0 	11.8 	10.9 	11.6 	13.0 	14.5 	16.2 	18.3 	15.5
Fitz 	19.4 	19.9 	18.7 	16.6 	14.8 	12.7 	11.9 	12.2 	13.3 	14.6 	16.2 	18.1 	15.7
There's also a fairly reliable 3-year-old PWS at Claris Aero near the island's southern east coast that I often check, but again, it only looks to be very marginally warmer than Auckland Aero.
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