Tauranga was the sunniest city in the North Island for 2007, edging out its closest rival Gisborne by 51 hours and well ahead of the main centres.
However it slipped to fifth place when compared to all other areas of New Zealand.
Tauranga's 2406 hours of sun was 161 hours behind the
least cloudy place in New Zealand - Blenheim.
The three other regional towns or cities more sunny than Tauranga were Lake Tekapo (2554 hours), Whakatane (2551 hours) and Nelson (2514 hours).
Tauranga's average temperature for 2007 was 15.2C - or 0.6C above the city's average since records began.
The city's unspectacular weather patterns last year meant it barely ranked a mention in NIWA's summary of New Zealand's climate for 2007.
Temperatures were slightly above average in the Western Bay by about 0.3C - in common with 10 other regions including Northland, Auckland, Thames-Coromandel, Waikato and Taranaki.
Te Puke featured in the rainfall figures, with the driest May and November since records began being taken for the town in 1973 - 38mm and 27mm respectively.
Te Puke also featured in November's hot spell, with its average temperature of 27.8C being the warmest November in the town's 34 years of weather records. May's average temperature of 13.6C was the equal warmest for a May in Te Puke.
The only minor deviation from the norm for Tauranga was August's temperatures. The average of 11.7C was the third highest on record for August since records started being taken in 1913.
A 10-minute hailstorm affected Te Puke on January 2 last year, and although heavy, no significant horticultural damage was reported. On May 2 a damaging tornado occurred near Tauranga.
Nationally, 2007 was a year notable for the high number of severe events and weather extremes.
It was marked by too little rain in many places, but also by disastrous flooding in Northland, the climate summary reported.
There were record low rainfalls in some locations, and it was 60 per cent less than normal in parts of Marlborough, Canterbury and Central Otago, Niwa principal scientist Jim Salinger said.
The year's national average temperature was 12.7C, with the highest annual mean being the 16.0C at Whangarei Airport.
The highest temperature recorded was 33.5C at Napier Airport on January 22, while the lowest was minus 15.4C at Lauder in Central Otago on July 18.
Tauranga sunshine: 2007 - 2406 hours; 2006 - 2507 hours; 2005 - 2495 hours; 2004 - 2370 hours; 2003 - 2303 hours.
Tauranga was the sunniest city in the North Island for 2007, edging out its closest rival Gisborne by 51 hours and well ahead of the main centres.
However it slipped to fifth place when compared to all other areas of New Zealand.
Tauranga's 2406 hours of sun was 161 hours behind the
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