Dunedin driest despite deluge

A car ploughs through floodwater on Teviot St in Dunedin during the July deluge. Photo: Gerard O'Brien
A car ploughs through floodwater on Teviot St in Dunedin during the July deluge. Photo: Gerard O'Brien
Massive flooding in July did not stop Dunedin from being the driest main centre this winter.

Just-released national Niwa figures show Dunedin was the driest, Auckland the warmest, Tauranga the sunniest, Christchurch the coolest and Wellington the wettest of the country's main centres during winter.

But although Dunedin was drier than some northern centres with a traditionally higher winter rainfall, the blast of rain on July 21-22 that led to nearby flooding lifted the city's rainfall to 226mm for the winter, 33% higher than normal.

A Niwa spokesman said winter rainfall was well above normal - up more than 49% - for parts of the eastern South Island, from Christchurch to Oamaru.

Record rainfall in parts of Otago and Canterbury had led to ''severe flooding and the declaration of a state of emergency'' in those parts.

Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said winter began and ended in Dunedin and Otago in a relatively settled way.

But on July 21, the ''lion was roaring'' and the effect of that heavy downpour and flooding was felt strongly in overall winter figures.

Asked if climate change might have contributed to such extreme weather, Mr Noll said links with any one such event could not be directly proved, but the ''fingerprints'' of possible climate change effects were being seen.

By contrast with the rainfall, Dunedin's 7.5degC mean winter temperature was only 0.4degC above the mean, by contrast with Auckland (12.2degC) and Tauranga (11.4degC), which were, respectively, 0.8degC and 0.7degC above average.

Dunedin's winter sunshine of 350 hours was 7% above average.

The July storm resulted in several weather records set on July 21, including at Oamaru, where 161mm of rain fell, the highest extreme one-day rainfall since records began, in 1950. it was the highest one-day rainfall recorded by Niwa in the country.

Oamaru experienced its wettest winter since records began in 1941 with 285mm in the season.

Other one-day rainfall records were set that day in Palmerston, 146mm, the highest since 1969; Balmoral, Outram, 164mm, 1948; Mosgiel, 150mm, 1952; Roxburgh, 61, 1946.

The second-highest one-day rainfalls were recorded in Middlemarch: 64mm, 1896; Green Island, Kaikorai, 115mm, 1993; and the third-highest reading was recorded at Dunedin (Musselburgh) 89mm, 1918.

Winter was also a time of contrasts, and, despite wetter-than-usual conditions on the South Island's east coast, below normal rainfall (50%-79%) was recorded in southern parts of Southland, Queenstown and Marlborough.

Winter temperatures were well above average - up more than 1.2degC on the winter average - in parts of Central Otago, including in Lauder, which had its highest winter mean air temperature (5.1degC) since records began in 1924.

At 11.2degC, Cromwell's mean maximum air temperature was 1.8degC above normal and the highest since records began in 1949.

Winter sunshine (110%-125%) was above normal in parts of Southland and western Waikato, but below normal sunshine (75%-89%) was observed in Christchurch and Wellington, Niwa said.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz

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