NZ - Hottest January in living memory

No doubt it won't register for most kiwi urbanites, but we are entering into a serious drought – not a localised event, but part of a global tendency

Hot, sunny January a record-breaker

Sccop,

4 February, 2013

It is official - New Zealand baked in January.

People marveled at the blue skies and chatted about how it was the hottest summer in living memory, and now the National Climate Centre has confirmed it.

According to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research's (Niwa) monthly climate summary, January was a record-breaker.

"The second half of January was characterised by an intense 'blocking high' which became slow moving over, and to the east of, the country," it said.

"This produced extremely sunny and dry conditions for New Zealand over the second half of the month."

For Warkworth, Whitianga, and Te Puke, it was the driest month on record, and for Masterton, it was the driest January ever.

Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga also had near record lows for monthly rainfall.

The South Island didn't miss out on the sunshine, racking up record or near-record high sunshine totals for the month.

"It was the sunniest January on record for Christchurch, Cheviot, Ashburton, Lake Tekapo, as well as Waipawa (Hawke's Bay)," said Niwa.

"It was also the sunniest month on record for all of these sites, except Christchurch, which logged its second-sunniest month after December 1988."

Sunshine totals were above normal for the rest of the country, aside from Northland, Auckland, Wellington, and Blenheim, which had normal sunshine hours.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

The highest temperature was 35.1 degrees Celsius, recorded at Clyde on January 5, and at Gisborne on January 9 and 10.

The lowest temperature was -0.5 degrees C, observed at Hanmer Forest on January 18.

The highest one-day rainfall was 346mm, recorded at Mount Cook on January 9.

Of the six main centres in January 2013, Auckland was the warmest, Dunedin the coolest, Wellington the wettest, and Tauranga the driest and sunniest.

Auckland weather turns wild

Stuff,

4 February, 2013

The rain and blustery winds that are bringing an end to the settled spell of summertime weather have a chilly southerly sting in the tail.

A severe thunderstorm watch has been posted for Auckland this afternoon.

Valid until 11pm it warns of possible thunderstorms in Auckland, Waikato, Waitomo, Taumarunui,

Taupo and Taranaki.

Metservice says a front preceded by very warm moist unstable air is expected to move onto the west of the North Island later this afternoon.

"Embedded thunderstorms are likely in the band of heavy rain as it moves through," they say.

"This is an alert to the potential that one or two thunderstorms may become severe supporting possible rainfall rates of 20-40mm/hr, damaging wind gusts that may exceed 110km/hr, and the possibility of an isolated tornado, especially in coastal locations."

The MetService said in a tweet the southerly would bring much colder temperatures throughout the country, with snow in the Southern Alps tonight.

The southerly was passing through Dunedin around 2pm, and was due into Wellington about 10pm, MetService media and communications meteorologist Daniel Corbett said.

Once the southerly arrived daytime maximums were expected to be in the high teens to low 20 degrees celsius.....