Local Weather – Wednesday 20th March 2013

[JennyLeez]

Report current or recent weather conditions at your location or elsewhere for Wednesday 20th March below.
You do not need a weather station, just look out your window and tell us what is going on above you.


If your conditions change, let us know. We will keep our Twitter, Google + and Facebook followers informed throughout the day during extreme conditions.

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[Phil]

Belmont, Lower Hutt

11.3 degrees
85% Humidity
3 kph Southerly
0.2mm of rain (18.2mm yesterday)
Barometer on 1023.1
Solar 7

high cloud cover which should burn off for some more sunny weather

[avoorpool]

Toronto / Pickering - Canada
Tuesday, March 19 at 3:00PM

Lousy Day..............
Still Windy and Snow Flurries flying around the house......

At nighttime we had + temperatures and Rain (4.3 mm), but the temp is quickly dropping to below "0", (resulting in a frozen Anenometer for a while...  ..)
Since NZ made the step into Fall, we're anxiously waiting to welcome Spring, however for now it doesn't look like it's going anywhere NEAR Spring 

Current Conditions:
Temp: - 0.2 C
Apparent Temp: - 5.5 C
Sky: Overcast
Wind: NW, gusting at 20 - 30 km/h
Precipitation: Snow Flurries
Baro: 1005 mb
Humidity: 78%
UV Index:  0 to 1

Funny to see (from inside!!) the Snow going completely horizontally (wind!!)....
Hope it's over soon.....

Cheers,

Arthur

[TonyC]

Port Robinson, North Canterbury 8.30am

Cloudy sky. Temperature 9.6° after a low of 8.9°. Heading for a high of around 15°. Wind from the SW. Highest gust in the last hour 11.3kph. No rain since midnight.

[ato2]

New Plymouth: 14 degrees, clear and sunny, S/SE wind of 40 km/hr gusting to 50km/hr

[ato2]

Current Conditions:[/b]
Temp: - 0.2 C
Apparent Temp: - 5.5 C
Sky: Overcast
Wind: NW, gusting at 20 - 30 km/h
Precipitation: Snow Flurries
Baro: 1005 mb
Humidity: 78%
UV Index:  0 to 1

Funny to see (from inside!!) the Snow going completely horizontally (wind!!)....
Hope it's over soon.....

Cheers,

Arthur
Remind me not to complain too much about our weather here....

[Bobby]

FRASERTOWN  8km north of Wairoa

Cloudy with likelihood of more showers.  Light breeze.  Temp 10.6 at 9.09 am

[Hank13]

Ashburton @ 09:02 AM
Blue sunny skies
Currant Temp. 7.4°C
Rain 0.0 mm
Current wind. 1.9 km/h,SW
Max Gust. 9.5 km/h @ 12:20 AM
Currant Grass Min. 4.8°C

[JennyLeez]

Wairoa:

Rain Rain through the night.
The greenest place in the North Island has now had 57mm in the last 24 hours.
 
The Over Night Temp Low was  12.7 °C
Rainfall of  30.6 mm since midnight.
Rainfall last 24 hours 57.3 mm
Current Temp Outside is  16.3 °C
Latest Wind Gust  25.6 km/hr from the NW
Barometer 1020.8 hPa
Solar is  376 W/m^2
UV is 5 with Light Level at 19950.0 Lux

[Rex]

Mahia Beach

cloud cover ------ 80%
wind ------  lite  SW
rain -------- nil
temp ------  18.8 in  / 18.9 out

[avoorpool]

Hi,

I see some 'drops' in temp around the different postings......
Is Fall in the Air?

What is the 'normal' temp in Fall/Winter somewhere between N-Island and S-Island???
Thanks.

Arthur

Here it's just a matter of a few weeks, and suddenly in 1 or 2 days the temp sky-rockets from 10 to 25 C, and that's the 'end' of Spring...

[Suezy]

West Melton - South Island at 12.16pm

Temp 15.4
Wind gust 11.3 SE
Baro 1024.9
Rain since midnight 0
Rain MTD 33.4

[ato2]

In general terms, there are not sharp differences between the Seasons in NZ, Arthur. There are areas where it is more noticeable than others.
For my area- on the west coast, North Island, 39 degrees S latitude, by the sea, monthly change is very gradual, with 8 degrees Celsius covering the entire range of mean monthly temperatures. Diurnal range is around 7 degrees. Mid March I would expect around 21 max/13 min, mid July 14/7.  Mid Spring 18/10, Mid Summer 22/14. Rainfall around 1,400mm (used to be! LOL) very evenly spread and sunshine hours are reliable and around 2,200 hrs per annum, with a pleasant proportion in the Winter months. Frost is unusual and in any case very light. But it is quite windy, mean annual wind speeds of around 20 to 21 km/hr, from memory.
There are contrasts between inland/coast, as one would expect and also E and W sides of the country. And naturally, the N/S difference.
NZ is a windy country- the mountain backbone, the oceanic aspect  and latitude all play a part.
But- it is also a country of micro climates and local experience differences greatly at times from the general story.
Other forum members can tell you more of their own areas, I am sure of that.

[Suezy]

Arthur - Just love your ingenuity in getting things up and going again.  I also love reading your reports each day.

[JennyLeez]

After a year of doing the data collection I notice no difference between the islands as such but a huge difference between inland/coast which is what Tom also commented on. Temperature wise that is.
Wind wise the east seems to suffer the cold southerlies while the west suffers cold northerlies.
Pressure readings are very loud and clear with the bottom of the south Island 90% of the time the lowest.

I will direct Rupert to your post as he will do better than this amateur
I also back Suezy with her comments. Thanks for your posts, always interesting to read

[avoorpool]

Thanks everyone, for your detailed information!!!!

Looks like an 'ideal' climate, at least not the extreme heat and drought as can be found in Australia...!!!
A gradual difference in Summer and Winter is always nice, especially when Winter isn't that 'harsh'...!!

Not like the patterns we see in Toronto with actually just "3" seasons:
Winter - Summer and Fall. (Spring is mostly 'skipped', when in April it bounces from 10 to 25 C in 2 days.

One thing you might not have, and that's the extraordinary Fall season, the most beautiful time of the year when all Maple trees turn into a phenomenal colour pattern, you only see in 'paintings' reaching from yellow, purple, dark red etc, etc..
The Lake-side views in Sept-Oct just North of Toronto (there are 10,000 lakes in Ontario only!!) make up for the brutal winter days..

Cheers,

Arthur

[Rwood]

There are no dramatic changes on average. The folloing numbers are 30-year mean temp. averages ((mean max + mean min)/2) for 102 North Island stations, 121 South Island ones, 223 overall. Not quite geographically or population "neutral", but give an accurate idea of the seasonal changes. 12 numbers for monthly values, followed by annual value. The biggest changes are for Mar-April and April-May.

Combined   

17.0 17.0   15.3 12.7   10.2 7.9 7.2 8.2 10.1 11.7 13.5 15.5   12.2
                                    
North Is

18.0 18.3 16.7 14.3 12.0 9.9 9.1 9.7 11.3 12.8 14.5 16.6  13.6
                              
South Is

16.1 15.9   14.1 11.4    8.7 6.2 5.5 6.9 9.1 10.8 12.6 14.6     11.0

[avoorpool]

Hi Rupert,

Thanks for the details.
Nice to see there're hardly 'single-digits' in temperature to be seen  , in other words very moderate.
Good for the outdoor plants I guess??

The extremes we face in our climate are often causing numerous problems. Just saw on the late evening news the major problems our prairie Provinces are facing within the next couple of weeks. Some people like snow, but Saskatchewan and Winnipeg had twice the normal amount (we're talking 200 cm and more of snow, which -of course- starts to melt in Spring...........resulting in probably the worst floods to come since many years.. 

Is the coming Fall in NZ as colourful as we see in this part of the World? (I attached a picture of my backyard the way it was in Sept/Oct)

Cheers,

Arthur

[ato2]

Great colours in those trees! In my area, most deciduous trees go a faint yellowish and then seem to grey away and fall off in the Winter sometime