Half the rain and a third more sunshine

Encouraging resilience: Patutahi Hall will host the 2019 Speak Up tour at the end of August, with a range of inspirational speakers lined up to offer tips on getting through tough times. File picture

NORMALLY our wettest month, less than half the 30-year average of rain fell here in July this year — 62.6mm as against 127.7mm.

The month just ended was also warmer and sunnier than usual, continuing the trend for the year so far.

At just shy of 160 hours, there was a third more sunshine hours than the 30-year average of 116.5 hours.

Remarkably for winter, eight days had around eight hours of sunshine.

While the top maximum of 20.3 degrees was not the warmest July day on record, the month as a whole was 0.7 of a degree warmer than usual at a mean of 10.4C.

Clearer, sunny skies and dominant warm north-west winds told the story, with the average daytime maximum being just over 15C — almost a degree warmer than the 30-year average.

Those clear skies also gave us more frosts, 10 in all, about three more than usual for July.

As a result the average minimum temperature was only a fraction above usual, at 5.6C.

The swing to northerly, warmer conditions has continued from the pattern set in June, with 22 days of wind from the northerly direction, and only 10 from the south or east.

In fact, north-west winds blew continuously for eight days, from the 21st to the 28th.

Despite the lower rainfall around Gisborne and along the coastal strip from Mahia to East Cape, where soil mositure levels are still as much as 30-50mm below normal, farmers everywhere else will be pleased with levels at or near-normal for the time of year.

And despite a touch of snow up at Matawai the other day, courtesy of a chill from the ski fields — all in all, it has been a mild winter so far, with signs that may continue over the coming months here on the East Coast.

On the wider front, El Nino has finally gone and conditions in the southern Pacific are currently in a “neutral” phase, however the World Meteorological Organisation and the US agency NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) believe La Nina conditions will start to develop from this month through to October.

But there is good news for this district — both organisations expect this La Nina will be a relatively weak one over summer.