New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Weather Discussion => Historical => 1975 - 1979 => Topic started by: Rwood on February 12, 2012, 12:14:22 PM
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April 1975: Marked by more frequent winds from a westerly quarter than usual. It was a warm month and predominantly dry in the North Island but wet in the South Island.
As a deep depression passed just to the south of Southland on the 1st, strong northerly gales buffeted many areas, especially about Cook Strait. At the same time heavy rain brought the southern lakes to unusually high levels besides causing some local flooding further north. [This event was the subject of a special Met. Office paper in an occasional series of these.]
Rainfall: In the North Island rainfall was mainly only half to 3/4 of the normal value. It was somewhat above normal in most western districts from Taranaki to Manawatu. In the South Island rainfall was mainly above normal by up to 50%. However it was somewhat below in some eastern districts, especially around Dunedin, and also in an area from Nelson city to Karamea.
It was a particularly wet month in Fiordland. Milford Sound had 1283mm, a record for April. The 5th-6th totalled 419mm; and the fortnight 28 March to 10 April produced 1173mm.
266mm at Nelson Aero (119mm on 1st), 25mm at Napier Aero.
Temperatures: Temperatures were mainly about 1C above normal. The highest departures were in eastern districts of the South Island and southern districts of the North Island. Unusually warm nights were experienced on 20-21 21-22 April. This was the 8th month with temperatures predominantly above normal. The average departure from September 1974 to April 1975 was 1.5C.
26.4C at Winchmore on the 2nd.
Sunshine: On the West Coast and in Southland and most of Otago sunshine was below normal by 25-50 hours. Elsewhere it was mainly close to normal, but it was 15-30 hours above in Northland and Auckland, and also in Wellington city, and parts of Marlborough and Canterbury.
[Some totals: Kaitaia 187, Whangarei 190, Auckland 181, Tauranga 156, Whakatane 164, Taupo 150, Hamilton 173, New Plymouth 184, Masterton 164, Dannevirke 157, Gisborne 164, Napier 155, Palmerston North 142, Wellington 187, Stratford 138, Wanganui 168, Westport 137, Hokitika 131, Haast 106, Riwaka 206, Nelson 203, Blenheim 213, Kaikoura 179, Mt Cook 101, Mt John 108, Christchurch 175, Timaru 141, Palmerston 115, Dunedin 97, Queenstown 109, Alexandra 128, Invercargill 75.]
Sources: NZ Met. Misc. pub. 107 (Climatological table, NZ Gazette) and NZ Met. Misc. pub. 109 (Meteorological Observations) - additional comments by the poster.