The year would be remembered as one of extremes: tornadoes, lightning strikes, torrential rain and high winds; with a strong La Nina event dominating New Zealand's climate at the start and end of 2011, National Institute of Atmospheric Water and Research (Niwa) principal climate scientist Dr James Renwick said.
Figures from the national climate summary for 2011 released yesterday showed features of 2011 included exceptional heat in February, a late winter with the warmest May and June on record, a polar blast in July and above normal rainfall for many parts of the country.
"Six months were very wet overall: January, March, April, May, July and October; and two were generally dry: August and September," he said.
Leigh, north Auckland recorded the highest annual average temperature of 16.7degC. The highest extreme temperature was 41.3degC in Timaru on February 6. The lowest temperature was -10.2degC at Manapouri on July 26. The national average was 12.8degC. The top one-day rainfall was 392mm in Takaka on December 14 and the sunniest spot was Nelson, with 2487 hours.
The summary showed a "lack of extremes" for Otago, Dr Renwick said.
"Otago was one of the more sheltered parts of the country with a settled climate overall; a good year."
The region was sunnier and warmer than normal, in sharp contrast to the North Island, and the top of the South Island.
This was due to much of the weather coming out of the north Tasman sea because of La Nina, and hitting the North Island first.
"The North Island sheltered the South Island, with most of the South Island dry and settled while the North Island was wet and stormy, broadly speaking."
The weather pattern brought a lot of norwesterly weather to the south, with extreme warmth in February and again in December. Clyde was the driest spot in the country.
"While it's been a settled year, there have been significant rainfall events that stand out," Dr Renwick said.
Alexandra recorded its highest one-day rainfall on February 6, as did Cromwell. This rain caused flooding in west and south Otago.
On May 7 more heavy rain caused slips and surface flooding in Alexandra and Dunedin.
A polar blast across most of the country on July 24-27 brought snow to low levels, closing businesses and roads in most of the region and resulting in Queenstown recording its lowest temperature in more than 100 years with -4.5degC.
Snow fell again in August, closing schools in Dunedin and some roads.
High winds hit the region in May and again in October and November, blowing people over and bringing down power poles and trees.
The east coast also had quite a sunny year, with Dunedin recording 13% more sunshine hours than normal.
The warm, dry weather was expected to continue for the rest of the summer, Dr Renwick said.
