Re: General February Weather
Posted: Wed 28/02/2024 23:44
Another generally cloudy day with light winds. Only 17.5C for today. Clagg settling in later this afternoon with some drizzle this evening.
And yet you posted 32.5mm for Dec? Are you sure you don't mean 29mm for just Jan and Feb?
Also, where are you getting those Waiau and Cheviot figures from, particularly as NIWA's Waiau site doesn't show any rain around Dec 15th?
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NIWA 2023/24 Summer Rainfalls (mm) to 9am on Feb 29th
Site Dec Jan Feb Total
Medbury 32.6 10.4 18.2 61.2
Culverden 33.4 8.8 18.8 61.0
Waiau School 27.8 9.2 25.2 62.2
Cheviot 47.4 7.0 44.8 99.2
MetService February 2024 Brief Summary
The final month of summer saw a return to a very active westerly weather pattern, which brought a myriad of rainfall events across western South Island, while eastern regions from Marlborough to south Canterbury experienced a very dry month. High pressure and dry weather also prevailed across the North Island.
Soil moisture deficits increased across most of the North Island and eastern South Island. This is characteristic of a more classical El Nino summer weather pattern, and shows that while El Nino is on a weakening trend, its effects remain present. More frequent bouts of strong northwesterly winds were also seen, particularly across eastern South Island. When combined with the drying soils and vegetation, this provided ripe conditions for fire weather and helped trigger and fan the flames of the Lee Valley and Port Hills fires.
The final week of February saw high pressure over the North Island weaken, which allowed a rain event to progress further north across the upper North Island. Without this event, soil moisture would have ended up even drier compared to current conditions.
February was characterised by large temperature swings, with near-freezing temperatures recorded across parts of the country following cold frontal passages, and otherwise generally warm conditions in the prevailing westerly flow.
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Feb 2024 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 25.1 +1.1 15.5 -0.9 20.3 +0.1 35 62% 260 128%
Tauranga Aero 25.5 +1.1 14.9 -0.9 20.2 +0.1 80 96%
Hamilton Aero * 25.2 +0.2 11.7 -1.4 18.5 -0.6 72 99% 253 137%
Wellington, Kelburn * 20.6 0.0 14.2 +0.3 17.4 +0.1 37 66% 231 109%
Christchurch Aero 22.8 +0.6 11.0 -0.5 16.9 0.0 32 80% 216 111%
Dunedin, Musselburgh 19.8 +1.1 11.6 +0.1 15.7 +0.6 38 54% 189 113%
Greymouth Aero 19.8 0.0 10.9 -1.8 15.4 -0.9 98 62% 230 118%
* Hamilton sunshine from Ruakura. * Wellington missing 1 day's data.