City soaks up sunniest January on record
PAUL GORMAN
Last updated 13:51 01/02/201

This January has been the sunniest on record for Christchurch since 1949.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) has this morning confirmed that sunshine hours for January were 288.9 hours, making it the sunniest January since records began in 1949.

It was also the second sunniest month ever, with December 1988 taking out the top title with 295 hours.

Metservice meorologist Daniel Corbett said the sunny weather was set to continue this weekend.

"There will be periods of morning cloud but it will clear in the afternoons. It will be a lot like the weather we've experienced all of this week."

Metservice was predicting a high of 29 degrees Celsius tomorrow and 27C on Sunday.

However, some rain would arrive on Monday "kicking the temperatures back down."

"There will be some rain and the temperature is expected to be down in the lower twenties. It's a long-range forecast but we expect that to last until about Wednesday before clearing again," Corbett said.

While one Rangiora reader's temperature gauge reached 43 degrees yesterday, Corbett said the official temperature recorded was 30 degrees.

"Of course, there are always variation in temperature on any given day. People's backyard thermometers often pick up different temperatures than the NIWA one," he said.

The Press reported this morning that Christchurch had smashed the more than 50-year-old weather record but this was unofficial until verified by Niwa.

Christchurch yesterday shared the country's official highest temperature of 32C with Darfield, Murchison, Alexandra and Masterton.

Copied from  The Press.