We now have a summary of our weather for last year. NIWA (the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) put this summary on their website. NIWA is a company which is owned by the government. Scientists at NIWA do research on climate, the atmosphere, the oceans and fish.
Last year, the weather was like New Zealand, very different in different parts of the country. It is about 1,600km from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island and temperatures are very different from the far north to the far south. Inland places have different weather from places on the coast, and the west coast has much more rain, especially the South Island West Coast.
The average temperature in Auckland was 14.6 degrees Celsius and they had 955mm of rain whereas Christchurch in the South Island had an average temperature of 11.1?C and only 589mm of rain. The warmest average temperature was in Whangarei in the far north, with 15.8?C. The highest temperature was at Culverden in inland Canterbury with 38?C on the 8th February. The lowest air temperature was at Middlemarch in Central Otago at -11.7?C on 19th July. Mt Cook had the most rain in one day: 341mm on 27th April.
Two months in 2009 had above average temperatures while four months had below average. The average temperature for the whole country was 12.3?C, 0.2?C below normal. For the whole decade (10 years) from January 2000 to the end of 2009, the average temperature was 12.6?C which was 0.1?C above the normal for the three decades 1971 to 2000.
Nelson at the top of the South Island was the sunniest with 2571 hours of sunshine. Tauranga, on the east coast of the North Island, had 2540 hours and Blenheim, near Nelson, had 2477 hours of sunshine. |