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The following posts are wrong in this case. It occurred during an event which transported very hot air from the Australian outback across NZ, and was exaggerated further by a build up of very warm dry conditions over a large part of the country and low soil moisture levels. The transported air travelled above a shallow layer of cooler Tasman air. Areas in the east from north Otago to Gisborne that day broke their existing temperature records, in Ch'ch Gardens by 5.4C. The highest readings were Rangiora 42.4C, Jordan (Marlborough) 42.3C and Christchurch Gardens 41.6C. Several research papers have been written about the event. The Southern Alps foehn effect helped as well, and there was no occurrence of the northwest "arch" cloud to moderate the conditions. A cool change followed a few hours later.
What i don't understand though i how New Zealand has the correct winter temp's for it's latitude similar to the South of France and Spain on the same latitude but slightly cooler summer averages? In my opinion it is a good thing as the hottest i like it here is no more than 30C in this intense sun but with Australia heating up and extreme heatwaves being more common i do worry that it will affect here
I was most interested in that record low, but holy hell those rainfall values are way off!
Seems like New Zealand gets these really bad one-off temperature events for hot and cold records.
The resident population in areas capable of coming anywhere near the cold record is very small - parts of the inland South Island. For the upper end, a bigger population but still a modest minority.
NZ's hot and cold temp records are really remarkable considering how much of a deviation from the norm they represent, especially considering the maritime nature of the country. The range of -26 C to 42 C could beat many continental climates, I suspect.
But yes, the vast majority of NZ's population will never experience anywhere near those extremes. For one thing, note that the national record high and low were both set in the South Island - more than three quarters of NZ's population reside in the North Island where the records are far more modest (especially with respect to the record low). IIRC, the record lows in Invercargill and Christchurch are -9 C and -7 C, respectively. In Auckland, the records are -3 C and 33 C, IIRC.
NZ's hot and cold temp records are really remarkable considering how much of a deviation from the norm they represent, especially considering the maritime nature of the country. The range of -26 C to 42 C could beat many continental climates, I suspect.
How highly elevated is Ranfurly (which recorded -26C)? We've recorded a low of -23C in Charlotte Pass (1700m) and it isn't that "high" nor that southerly in latitude. Do they have weather stations as high as 3500m in NZ? Because if they did then I'm sure the record low would be around -30C, especially in the most southernmost areas on south island.
How highly elevated is Ranfurly (which recorded -26C)? We've recorded a low of -23C in Charlotte Pass (1700m) and it isn't that "high" nor that southerly in latitude. Do they have weather stations as high as 3500m in NZ? Because if they did then I'm sure the record low would be around -30C, especially in the most southernmost areas on south island.
The wiki page for Ranfurly says 430m. But, looking at what RWood has been correcting, that's probably wrong too.
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Originally Posted by jgtheone
The wiki page for Ranfurly says 430m. But, looking at what RWood has been correcting, that's probably wrong too.
I looked on Google Earth and wikipedia are correct,Ranfurly are at 430m.
Interesting that Balmaceda are at the same latitude and 100m higher,and hold an record low of -28.3C,this latitude seen to be the point of extreme cold here in Southern Hemisphere
Perhaps cooler extremes, but in general sense I doubt the averages would differ that much. Remember that New Zealand has sufficient distance to Australia to get a west coast effect anyway, except no landmass behind it to cause a mediterranean precipitation pattern. Auckland would perhaps be more like the Azores, with a max high of all time of 27-28 C, but with solid 23 C summer days still.
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