NZ weather summary May 1980

[Rwood]

May 1980:  It was considerably drier and milder than usual throughout most of the country. Mean monthly pressures were the highest since June 1979, and Kelburn, Wellington recorded 1036.4 hPa on the 9th, its highest May reading since 1934. There was a marked absence of strong winds over the North Island, but westerly winds were stronger than average over the south of the South Island. Grass growth and stock condition were both good.

Rainfall: The only areas with above normal rainfall were parts of Westland and Southland. Even there the excesses were less than 50%. The greatest departures below normal occurred in Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa and Canterbury. Many stations in these districts had less than 25% of their usual rainfall, and Okuti on Banks Peninsula recorded only 4mm, the lowest May total since 1927. Castlepoint’s 11mm was its lowest on record for May, observations from 1902.

Heavy rain in the Otira area on the 21st caused a major washout on the railway line between Greymouth and Christchurch, and three locomotives plunged into the Otira River. 152mm was recorded in the 24 hours to 9am on the 21st, and the washout occurred between 8pm on the 20th and 7am on the 21st, when 130mm fell. Invercargill city and surrounding areas had surface flooding on the 24th when 36mm were recorded between midnight and 7am. The daily fall of 45mm was the highest one-day fall in May at the airport. The town of Kelso was flooded once again during this heavy rain.

628mm rainfall at Milford, 138mm at Invercargill; 37mm at Cape Reinga, 19mm at Ohope, 8mm at Waipara.

Temperatures: Temperatures were warmer than usual throughout the country apart from some areas in Northland and Bay of Plenty. In the North Island they were 0.5C above normal and in the South Island by more than 1.0C. Invercargill’s mean of 9.0C was its highest since 1954. In eastern districts daytime temperatures were 2.0-4.0C colder than usual from the 28th-31st. A warm spell from the 23rd-25th gave maximum temperatures generally above normal by 3.0C.

25.2C maximum at Christchurch on the 14th, -5.6C minimum at Ophir on the 28th.

Sunshine: Total hours were near normal in most districts. On the West Coast and the Southland plain they were below average by 10-30 hours, but in some eastern areas they were above by the same amount.

[Some totals: Kaitaia 150, Waitangi 135, Auckland 127, Tauranga 165, Whakatane 168, Rotorua 146, Taupo 122, Hamilton 107, New Plymouth 169, Masterton 124, Dannevirke 123, Gisborne 149, Napier 142, Paraparaumu 146, Palmerston North 100, Wellington 130, Stratford 130, Wanganui 129, Westport 103, Hokitika 110, Greymouth 93, Nelson 171, Blenheim 162, Kaikoura 141, Mt Cook 96, Christchurch 163, Tekapo 148, Timaru 126, Oamaru Aero 151, Omarama 139, Palmerston 109, Dunedin 93, Queenstown 95, Alexandra 122, Gore 80, Invercargill 60.]

Sources: NZ Met. Misc. pub. 107 (Climatological table, NZ Gazette) and NZ Met. Misc. pub. 109 (Meteorological Observations).

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[JennyLeez]

A little more re the Atira Train disaster.

The EO class has only ever been involved in one accident. On 21 May 1980, EO's 45, 51, and 74 were hauling a coal train from Otira to Arthur's Pass at around 4pm after the decision was made to suspend operations due to heavy rain earlier that day. As the train approached the Goat Creek bridge, it derailed into the swollen Otira River which had washed away 50 metres of track. Locomotive driver Owen Fitzgerald was trapped in the cab of leading locomotive EO 45 and subsequently drowned. His assistant was able to escape through one of the front windows which had broken in the derailment.

The three EO class locomotives were badly damaged, while the Midland line was closed until the locomotives could be recovered and the trackbed rebuilt. As a result, 1,800 hp electric locomotive EW 159 was sent down from Wellington to replace the three EO's while they were rebuilt at Addington Workshops. This required two locomotive drivers to run the EW in conjunction with the two remaining EO's (EO 39 and EO 68) as the EW did not have multiple unit equipment. This combination produced a total of 3,000 hp in comparison to the 1,800 hp produced by three EO's.