Weather-wise it was a mixed bag for Northland during autumn

Whangārei had it’s second highest May sunshine hours ever last month, according to the Niwa Climate Summary for Autumn

Depending on where you live in Northland, autumn was wetter, drier, sunnier or warmer than normal as the country was hit with a mixed three months of weather.

The Niwa Climate Summary for autumn — March to May — shows a mixed bag of conditions for Northland and the whole country, with Whangārei recording its second-highest total of May sunshine hours, and Kaikohe it’s second-highest April high temperature.

Niwa meteorologist Seth Carrier said autumn 2024 was characterised by higher-than-normal mean sea level pressure (MSLP) west of the country and lower-than-normal MSLP south and east of the country. This generally resulted in more southwesterly winds than normal, resulting in cooler-than-average seasonal temperatures and drier-than-normal conditions for much of the country.

“The season was characterised by a weakening El Nino, which drove the southwesterly airflow anomaly from the Southern Ocean. In addition, New Zealand coastal water temperatures were slightly below average during autumn, which contributed to cooler air temperatures,’’ he said.

“Overall, the nationwide average temperature for autumn 2024 was 12.8C (0.6C below the 1991-2020 average from Niwa’s seven-station temperature series, which begins in 1909), making autumn 2024 the coolest autumn since 2012, and the fourth-coolest autumn since 2000.”

However, Carrier said, the season did feature monthly variations in temperature. Autumn began on a chilly note because March was New Zealand’s most unusually cold month since January 2014, and the coldest March since 2012. After near-average temperatures in April, they were well below average in May. It was the coldest May since 2009.

The variations were prominent in Northland, with some parts of the region drier than normal and others wetter than normal, some warmer and others sunnier.

It was a dry May for many parts of the country. Rainfall was below normal (by 50-79 per cent) or well below normal (by less than 50 per cent) for much of the country, with northern and eastern parts of Northland getting below-normal rainfall. In contrast, rainfall was above normal in western parts of Northland, much of Auckland, parts of northern Waikato, Wellington, and southern Southland.

Whangārei recorded 173 hours of sunshine in May. That is 113 per cent of the monthly norm, and the second-highest total for May since records there began in 1954. Whangārei also recorded its fourth-lowest May minimum mean air temperature on record with 8C — 1.5C below the monthly average.

Cape Reinga, meanwhile, recorded its third-lowest May minimum air temperature since records began there in 1951, with 6C on May 30.

Kaikohe recorded 29.1C on April 11, the town’s second-highest April temperature since records began there in 1973.