December a drenched month for Canterbury!!!

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Storm Struck
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December a drenched month for Canterbury!!!

Unread post by Storm Struck »

December not only seen those boring cold annoying SW winds :twisted: but also a good month for farmers with higher than average rainfall.
Heavy rain from cold southerly flows dumped a fair bit and on other occasion Thunderstorms or heavy brief showers passed through.
Out of this month Canterbury only had 7 days of sunhine and 4 of those were of full warm sun without higher or interupted cloud.
Although on December 2nd we had a nice high temperature of 27dg much of the month which was dominated by cold SW flows sent the temperatures plumeting on many days with some only reaching 6-7 degrees.
Snow aslo fell to as low as 500m on Banks Peninsula and Plains.
But the biggest amount of rainfall in one month comes to this which I have added up ( 128.6mm) of rain has fallen this month with 23mm falling on one day.
This being the highest rainfall December since records began back in 1978.
:shock: :D
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JASON TIPPET.
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TonyT
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Unread post by TonyT »

17 days of rain this December ties the record for the rainiest December on record in Chch with December 1902.

The 10 day period from the 15th to the 24th brought rain on each day, as far as we can see the first time this has happened in Christchuch in December, and the first since the early 1980s for any month.

The monthly total in Chch (and still a day to go) of 123mm was the wettest December since 1978 when 138mm fell but drier than August this year (149mm). This was the 8th wettest December since 1863, the wettest being 1902 with 202mm!

Totals around Canterbury seem to have varied a lot, with the area around Chch in mid Canty probably the lowest around 120mm, and some parts of North and South Canterbury up above 180mm. Some of these places may be threatening long term records.

Strangely, there have actually been no days with zero sunshine recorded at Chch airport this December, but only 7 days where there has been 10 hours or more. The sunshine total for the month is not too far away from the long term normal.

The coldest daily maximums have been 12.9 deg on the 5th and 18th, being the coldest December days since 1994. The warmest day was "only" 25.3 deg on the 2nd, the coldest December maximum since December 1968, and the 3rd coldest on record. It will be interesting to look at the temperature averages in a few days' time.
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TonyT
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Unread post by TonyT »

As there was rain on the last day, the total raindays for the month bumps up to 18, making it the rainiest December on record for Chch.

Mean temperatures for the month as a whole were very cold, the average for the month of 13.3 degrees being 3.3 degrees colder than the long term normal for December, over a degree colder than November’s temperatures in the city, and tying the record for the coldest ever December with December 1911.

Mean daily maximum temperatures were almost 2 degrees colder than in November, and the second coldest on record (only 1936 had colder days than this December). Mean daily minimum temperatures were also significantly colder than normal, ranking as the third coldest on record (only 1911 and 1905 had colder nights than this December).
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