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A strongly anticyclonic month in NZ, with an upper level ridge more or less stationary for the whole month plus part of January. Result was very low rainfall in most parts and sunshine surpluses that were exceptional in a number of areas. Quite a number of records broken in that respect, though EWS site readings will mostly have exaggerated the margins. The NIWA summary should be posted in a few days.
Some preliminary sunshine totals (subject to arithmetic checking): Wellington 280.6 Blenheim 288.9 Nelson 256.9 Stratford 270.9 Whakatane 290.6 Hamilton 252.5 North Shore 240.7 Mangere 229.1 Kaitaia 210.9 Dargaville 218.7 Ohakune 255.8 Tekapo 280.9 Mt Cook 229.1 Franz Josef 230.6 Waipawa 242.2 Akitio 272.0 Wallaceville 244.5 Martinborough 267.3 Paraparaumu EWS 287.0 Greymouth EWS 244.9 Cheviot 265.2 Rangiora 249.4 Akaroa 262.6 Christchurch 234.8 Dunedin 190.6 Cromwell 267.5 Invercargill AWS 172.2 Invercargill 179.1
First 27 days (updates later): New Plymouth (***) 319.3 Hokitika EWS 237.8 Ashburton 214.5 Queenstown Aero 258.8
(***) This value would imply a monthly total of about 330 and is certainly not credible, though the exceptional conditions that month could justify a value of up to about 305 hours. The last 24 days of the month saw "relentless" sunshine with comparatively low humidities and offshore breezes.
If the site gets a check for calibration, it will be because it scores highly in the "stakes" - further back in the field a significant number of others with excessive readings have been ignored for quite a long time - several years in some cases.
Lowest Minimum: 19.0 C (66.2 F)
Average Minimum: 20.6 C (69.1 F)
Highest Minimum: 23.8 C (74.8 F)
Lowest Maximum: 24.1 C (75.4 F)
Average Maximum: 28.5 C (83.3 F)
Highest Maximum: 33.1 C (91.6 F)
Total Rainfall: 250.6 mm (9.87 inches)
Total Sunshine: 185.7 hours
Avg Sunshine / Day: 6.6 hrs/day
Total Days 0 Sunshine: 3 days
Total Days <= 3 Hrs Sunshine: 5 days
Total Days >= 8 Hrs Sunshine: 12 days
Total Days Missing Sunshine Data: 0 days
I'll remember this month for the big rain events that had plenty of people on high alert. We had significant rain on the 19th and then had our Australia Day long weekend ruined by around 160mm of rain.
The last 13 days up to month end have seen rain/precipitation on every day so at this time of the year, it is wise to leave the house with an umbrella!
Temperatures were below average as well (not surprising given the circumstances as mentioned above).
Mean: 3.5C (-1.4)
Mean maximum: 5.7C (-1.9)
Mean minimum: 1.2C (-1.0)
Absolute maximum: 10.2C
Absolute minimum: -2.2C
Air frosts: 5
Ice days: 0
Snow lying days: 3
Rainfall: 36.9mm (-8%) on 12 days
Sunshine: 64.9 hours
Sunless days: 11
Fairly boring really, a lot of cold, cloudy days without any particularly low minima and a lack of mild weather. No ice days, but two spells of consistent 0-2C and overcast weather. The daffodils are still not blooming, which you would normally expect by 1st March. Nearly all the precipitation came in the first half of the month after a fairly wet previous few months, so the ground isn't as saturated now as it was a few weeks ago.
It hasn't been a special month or special winter but overall this has been the fourth winter in five years to be below average, something that has not happened in most people's lifetimes. Locally it has been the fifth winter in a row to have snow cover for at least seven consecutive days, something which has never been recorded before.
Cookeville, TN (I spent most of Feb 2013 here, in college)
Avg high/low: 47 F / 30 F (high 2 F below avg, low at avg)
Precipitation: 2.34" (2.28" below avg)
Snows: No real snows (although there was a 1" snowfall in the last hours of January 31. And it's snowing now, at 6:38 am March 1)
Overall, I'd give it a 4 out of 10. Too much 40s cold, too little snow.
On an interesting side note, both 2008-present Honda Accords I first rode in this month (2/1 and 2/27) came on below average temperature days that would rank higher than 4/10 on their own. 2/1 would get a 9 for the snow and cold temps (28/15 F) while 2/27 had little snow that didn't stick and 39/33 F, getting it a 6/10.
Mean Maximum 2.2C / 36F
Mean minimum -0.9C / 30.4F
Mean Temperature 0.6C / 33.1F
Highest High 7.2C / 45F
Lowest High -1C / 30F
Highest Low 2.3C / 36.1F
Lowest Low -7.5C / 18.5F
Ice Days 4
Precipitation 34mm / 1.34"
Days with precipitation 12
Snow lying days 8
Max depth 8 cm / 3.15"
Sunshine hours 25,9
Sunless days 17
Most in one day 8,8 h (28th)
This month has slightly below average maximum temperature (good) and above average minimum temp. with normal precipitation. Unfortunately February was extremely cloudy, boring and depressing, so only 2 points from me. This endless gloominess could be interesting, but not after very cloudy December and January.
days above 35C ..... 4
days above 30C ..... 14
days below 25C ...... 6
nights above 20C .... 5
nights above 15C .... 25
total rainfall ................................ 70.4mm (2.9")
days with rain ............................. 10
days with thunder ........................ 4
total sunshine ............................. 257.2 hours
hours per day .............................. 9.2 hours
days over 12 hours sunshine ........... 9
days over 10 hours sunshine ........... 13
days below 5 hours sunshine ........... 4
days below 1 hour sunshine ............ 1
average 9am cloud cover ................ 5/8
average 3pm cloud cover ................ 4/8
Overall I give this month a B+. It was warm to hot for the most part, and quite humid aswell. The humidity was a feature of this month, there were no dry hot windy days, but rather the hot days were accompanied by light winds with an upper high and warm uppers preventing thunderstorms and rain and promoting clear skies with heat despite prevalent easterly/southeasterly winds and strong afternoon seabreezes. This dominant easterly flow also resulted in higher than usual humidity.
There was plentiful sunshine, which continued the theme of this summer, but also higher than average rainfall from a couple of thunderstorms that made it into the metro area. Nights were quite balmy aswell. However ,there were no decent night time lightning displays and the storms we got were poor 5 minute affairs, especially compared to the last few seasons so the month only loses the A for that.
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and almost 3c above average, yuck!
Hopefully it will start cooling down soon, some decent rain this year would be nice as well.
