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Many across the South may be surprised to learn Dunedin and Invercargill have just had their warmest winters on record, despite the usual polar blasts with heavy rain, snow and severe gales.
Earth Sciences New Zealand climate scientist Gregor Macara said\u00a0they were among many long-standing records which toppled in Otago and Southland over the past three months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winter temperatures in Dunedin (Musselburgh) averaged 8.9\u02daC (1.6\u02daC\u00a0warmer than usual), while Invercargill\u2019s mean was 7.5\u02daC (1.5\u02daC warmer than usual).<\/p>\n
Mr Macara said 25 other weather stations across the country\u00a0also observed their warmest winter on record, including\u00a0Haast (9.7\u02daC),\u00a0Milford Sound (8.1\u02daC),\u00a0Puysegur Point (10.0\u02daC),\u00a0Ranfurly (5.1\u02daC),\u00a0Lauder (5.4\u02daC), Tapanui (6.8\u02daC),\u00a0Tautuku (8.3\u02daC), and South West Cape (9.4\u02daC).<\/p>\n
Oamaru, Middlemarch,\u00a0Manapouri (West Arm Jetty),\u00a0Lumsden,\u00a0Cromwell, Gore,\u00a0Tiwai Point,\u00a0Balclutha and\u00a0Nugget Point also recorded their second warmest winters on record, he said.<\/p>\n
Record\u00a0daily maximum air temperatures for winter were also recorded at\u00a0Manapouri (Airport) (18.4\u02daC) and Lumsden (18.9\u02daC)\u00a0on\u00a0June 19, and Clyde had its second-equal highest maximum daily temperature when the mercury hit 20.7\u02daC on\u00a0August 25.<\/p>\n
Nationwide, it was New Zealand\u2019s third-warmest winter on record, with a nationwide average of 9.7\u00b0C, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may surprise a large portion of the population, especially in northern areas where winter temperatures were close to average.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the exceptional warmth of June nationwide, and the relatively warm winter throughout the South Island, were the dominant features of the country\u2019s overall seasonal temperature.<\/p>\n
\u201cTemperatures were above average or well above average throughout the South Island.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rainfall totals were also above normal, or well above normal, for Southland and\u00a0Otago.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s wettest location relative to normal was Oamaru, where 218% of normal winter rainfall was recorded.<\/p>\n
The town observed 285mm of rainfall, making it the town\u2019s third-wettest winter since records began in 1941.<\/p>\n
It also had its third-highest\u00a0winter extreme 1-day rainfall total when\u00a0110mm fell on July 5.<\/p>\n
On the same day, Dunedin Airport had its highest extreme 1-day rainfall total with 116mm, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a relatively wet winter in Dunedin, with the city receiving 134% of its normal winter rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many other areas around the southern regions also observed near-record levels of rainfall.<\/p>\n
Mr Macara said the \u201cimpactful heavy rainfall\u201d which\u00a0occurred in eastern parts of the South Island\u00a0from July 5-9\u00a0prompted\u00a0three local states of emergency to be declared.<\/p>\n
Winds were also particularly strong during June and July, when Manapouri recorded its highest winter extreme wind gust of 81kmh.<\/p>\n
Oamaru and Gore recorded their second-highest wind gusts of\u00a0 93kmh and 126kmh, respectively.<\/p>\n
Given\u00a0the continued\u00a0strengthening of El Nino conditions, more long-term weather records are expected to tumble in the coming months.<\/p>\n
john.lewis@odt.co.nz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many across the South may be surprised to learn Dunedin and Invercargill have just had their warmest winters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-590495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}