General June Weather

[Storm Struck]

There was definitely a heavy shower and hail risk today even since this morning as was evident around Banks Peninsula and North Canterbury.
But the instability numbers were not showing today.
Sometimes it's simply down to a small upper trough crossing and lighter winds on the plains and coast regardless of SW or NE.
11C was the maximum so surface heating didn't contribute greatly.

However the moisture for tonight has always been there, so it's nice to be getting some form of action considering most of it will be over Southland and Otago this weekend.

[David]

Very little in the way of showers here during most of today but certainly some very heavy falls around tonight. Rain rate just hit 129mm/hr a few mins ago.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Fine overnight and this morning.
Cloud building up this afternoon and developing more so late afternoon with a thunderstorm developing to the NW to west of here late this afternoon and evening.
Some vivid horizontal lightning flashes resulting in long thunder booms and one 'dump'.
11.3C with only 0.5mm of rain. There would be isolated heavier falls in areas where the thunderstorm was.
Not much wind all day today.
Here's a photo I took returning from Temuka of instability towards the 4 Peaks area an hour or so before the thunderstorm.

[mikestormchaser]

Fine overnight and this morning.
Cloud building up this afternoon and developing more so late afternoon with a thunderstorm developing to the NW to west of here late this afternoon and evening.
Some vivid horizontal lightning flashes resulting in long thunder booms and one 'dump'.
11.3C with only 0.5mm of rain. There would be isolated heavier falls in areas where the thunderstorm was.
Not much wind all day today.
Here's a photo I took returning from Temuka of instability towards the 4 Peaks area an hour or so before the thunderstorm.

Interesting to hear the report of the thunderstorm John. Wouldn't of thought that would have happened today let alone the time of year

[Nev]

A relatively warm June overall, except for central Otago and some parts of Northland. Also very wet for the east and north of the North Island, but generally much drier elsewhere.

MetService June 2023 Brief Summary – A mix of quick-moving westerly weather makers

The start of winter brought a mix of northerly lows and brief wintry spells. This delivered further heavy rain events and anomalously warm temperatures across many northern regions, quite reminiscent of a hangover from waning La Niña-like conditions as we head into the snowy season.

A Red Rain Warning was issued on June 22nd for Gisborne during a week-long rain event which culminated in more than 400mm accumulation about the ranges. Auckland remained wet through the month, with a half-yearly rainfall total of 1135mm [updated to 1154mm]. This officially eclipsed their average annual rainfall total of 1118.9mm [for Akld Aero].

Looking towards the South Island, the West Coast saw its fair share of heavy rain events, but the most notable aspect of June was the lack of large snow dumps. A few minor snow events managed to sneak their way across the island, but abnormally warm temperatures helped keep snow accumulation to a minimum. Saying that, parts of Otago experienced persistent freezing fog for days on-end under a low-level inversion.

The weather regime shifted towards a strong and active westerly flow during the final days of June, with snow to low levels waiting in the wings for parts of the South Island. Expect an increased frequency in these quick-moving events as El Niño builds over the remaining winter months.

Jun 2023 Climate Anomaly Maps ℅ NIWA.png

Preliminary stats for the main centres:

Code: Select all

Jun 2023 Average Temps, Rainfall, Sunshine and departures from 1991-2020 normals ℅ NIWA

Site                     T-max °C      T-min °C      T-mean °C     Rain mm      Sun hrs

Auckland, Mangere       16.3  +0.8     8.6   0.0    12.4  +0.4    119   94%    155  123%
Tauranga Aero           16.3  +0.9     8.9  +1.8    12.6  +1.4    227  188%
Hamilton Aero *         15.5  +1.1     5.0  +0.2    10.3  +0.7    166  128%    148  123%
Wellington, Kelburn *   13.8  +1.4     8.1  +0.8    11.0  +1.1     48   39%    129  128%
Christchurch Aero       12.5  +0.8     3.7  +2.5     8.1  +1.7     51   75%     92   80%
Dunedin, Musselburgh    12.2  +1.4     5.9  +2.0     9.1  +1.7     51   86%     86   90%
Greymouth Aero          14.2  +1.9     6.3  +0.8    10.3  +1.4    185   79%    134  144%

* Hamilton sunshine from Ruakura. * Wgtn missing first 1-2 days of all data. 

Note that the June rainfalls at Akld Aero and Mangere under-represent what fell in many other parts of Akld, e.g. 204mm at Whangaparaoa.

[Richard]

June stats for Medbury-

Fourteen sub zero mornings along with a 12 day run.
Rainfall saw 39.6mm
Highest temp 17.5deg on the 1st
Lowest temp was -7.1 deg
Warmest overnight temp was 11.5 deg on the 1st
Lowest max temp was 7deg on the 17th

[JP.]

A relatively warm June overall, except for central Otago and some parts of Northland. Also very wet for the east and north of the North Island, but generally much drier elsewhere.

That T min is very warm for June in Christchurch. I knew it was going to be high as I still haven’t had a frost on my car this year yet.

[Nev]

That T min is very warm for June in Christchurch. I knew it was going to be high as I still haven’t had a frost on my car this year yet.

It was actually Chch Aero's equal-highest average June Tmin and 3rd-equal highest Tmean from records since 1954.
It was also Dunedin, Musselburgh's highest average June Tmin and Tmean from records since 1947.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Weather readings from Geraldine for June.

Highest temperature was 21.5C on Thursday the 1st
Lowest temperature was minus 4C on Sunday the 11th.
Warmest overnight temperature was 9.4C on Saturday the 24th.
Lowest maximum temperature was 8.5C on Sunday the 11th.
Total rainfall over 11 days was 57.6mm.
We had 13 frosts and 1 thunder day, the 30th.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I noticed that Wellington has had it's most windless June for 11 years?
For June apparently it had a mean speed of 11k/hr.

[Nev]

I noticed that Wellington has had it's most windless June for 11 years?
For June apparently it had a mean speed of 11k/hr.

I think you mean Wellington Aero's June mean wind speed of around 17 km/h was its lowest for any month in 11 years...

''Not so windy' Wellington? Capital enjoys unusually calm autumn' - 1news

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/wellin ... g-its-puff


Edit: From NIWA's June 2023 Summary:

The monthly mean wind speed at Wellington Airport was 4.3 m/s [15.5 km/h]. This was its lowest mean wind speed for June, and second-lowest of any month, since the anemometer mast was moved to its existing location in 1993.

[BeaconHill]

Wellington certainly had a noticeably odd June wind wise. Even though it was not particularly wet, the lack of wind meant the local mountain bike tracks struggled to dry out. Combined with lovely weekend weather on occasions.... Result ---> Mud fest! Especially on tracks that are very sheltered in the trees. It just shows how much Wellingtons usual regular strong winds help to dry the tracks out.

Also, there were many days with such light winds that the Airport would flip runway direction multiple times in a given day, with a light southerly at one end of the runway and light northerly at the other! Led to many go-arounds.

It did make cycling to and from work much more pleasant though.

[Razor]

Meanwhile ChCh ave. minimum was 3.9 degrees above normal...nearly all the freezes were inland with the ENE flows

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/weathe ... go-shivers

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I noticed that Wellington has had it's most windless June for 11 years?
For June apparently it had a mean speed of 11k/hr.

I think you mean Wellington Aero's June mean wind speed of around 17 km/h was its lowest for any month in 11 years...

I got that info off the radio. Maybe they got it wrong or around the wrong way?

[TonyT]

Meanwhile ChCh ave. minimum was 3.9 degrees above normal...nearly all the freezes were inland with the ENE flows

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/weathe ... go-shivers

Not wanting to be too pedantic as I know exactly what you mean, but the frosts earlier in the month were coastal, away from Christchurch. We had 10 days of frost in a row here in Amberley, no further from the coast than eastern Christchurch, and on most of those days there was frost at the beach too (the pic is the low dunes at Amberley Beach). Its the Port Hills funnelling the easterly airflow and creating the cloud which makes the Christchurch area so much warmer on those type of nights and its not representative of 99% of the area of Canterbury.

IMG_3016.jpeg

[spwill]

The June summary here
https://niwa.co.nz/sites/niwa.co.nz/fil ... _Final.pdf
54 hours of sunshine for Cromwell, its lowest sunshine total for June since records began in1979. Similar for Wanaka with the low cloud lingering across the valley on many days.