Third lowest known rainfall

Sarah Simmons, with her son Hans, made the most of the clear skies yesterday. Photo / John Borren

It's been a dry first half of the year - and this is unlikely to change in the next three months.

Niwa records show the coldest day in the past six months dropped to 0.3C on June 17, the warmest day was on January 12, hitting 29.1C, and the wettest was on April 18, when 49mm of rain fell.

Chris Brandolino, forecaster with Niwa National Climate Centre, said Tauranga's lack of rainfall in June almost hit records. It was the equal third lowest amount of rainfall to have been recorded in the city for the month of June since records began in 1898. "That's a significant number of years to compare. There was only 35mm throughout the whole month of June." The average minimum temperature for June was 7.9C - a full degree Celsius above normal. Average maximum temperatures were near normal.

Mr Brandolino said that in the past three months Tauranga had only reached 71 per cent of the usual average rainfall for this time of year.

"Ordinarily, you would receive 345mm of rain and only 247mm fell."

A developing El Nino weather pattern meant it was likely temperatures would be near normal and rainfall would be below average in the next three months. "A wet end of winter and start of spring looks pretty unlikely."

Sarah Simmons of Welcome Bay spent yesterday making the most of the clear skies with her toddler Hans. She is used to more extreme winters than experienced in Tauranga. When she lived in Germany she would sometimes have to shovel the ice from outside her doors, and often had snow up past her knees.

The Bay was "so much nicer" in terms of weather than her hometown, she said, describing it as "lovely".