Weekend's sunshine unlikely to come back this month

Wet weather is returning to Tauranga

Tauranga may have had a warm and sunny Saturday but wet weather is returning, with just one dry day expected for the rest of September.

With a few more days left until the start of October, this month has been a lot wetter than a normal September, looking set to record more than double the normal amount of rainfall.

Since September 1 a total of 163.4mm of rain had fallen in Tauranga to September 24, with about half of that falling on September 2. There had only been seven dry days in September as of yesterday.

NIWA climate scientist Nava Fedaeff said the normal amount of rainfall for a September was 85mm of rain and with more showers expected this week.

"We're looking at double for rain," Miss Fedaeff said.

According to the Metservice, rain or showers were expected to fall for most of the week.

Today was forecast to see the heaviest rain, developing in the morning and becoming heavy at times from the afternoon. Temperatures would reach between 12-19 degrees.

Thursday was the only day for the rest of this month which did not have rain forecast.

Last Saturday, the sun came out with a high of 20 degrees, which had been the highest temperature recorded so far this month. September 14 also recorded a high of 20 degrees but also recorded 6.6mm of rain.

Miss Fedaeff said the average temperature in Tauranga this month had been 12.4 degrees, which was normal.

There was no reason in particular for a wetter than normal September but Miss Fedaeff said it was often a "changeable month" because it was right at the end of winter and the beginning of summer. This meant weather patterns often "see-sawed", she said.

September's heavy rainfall follows the city recording a year's worth of rain in August, tracking to be one of the wettest years for Tauranga.

In the first eight months 1344mm of rain had been recorded in Tauranga, 155mm more than the average annual rainfall of 1189mm. As of Monday afternoon, 1507.4mm of had been recorded this year.

October looks set to have a wet start with the first three days of the month expected to have some rain. Sunday looks set to be the most wet, with the sun coming on out Wednesday, October 4.