Month of July colder and frostier than normal

Wairarapa weather watchers had every reason to dismiss July as abysmal - it was both colder and frostier than normal.
Niwa figures show the mean daily average temperature over the month was 7.1C, below the normal July average of 7.5C, with the day and night average temperatures also slightly below average at 11.7C and 2.5C respectively.
The chilliest day of the month was Sunday, July 26, which saw the mercury plummet to 2.2C in the early hours and brought a "decent-sized frost" when it pushed the grass temperature down to -5.3C, climate scientist Andrew Tait said.
Those of us who thought the morning practice of fetching hot water for frozen windscreens was becoming a little too regular also weren't far off - there were 19 days with ground frosts over the month.
At the other end of the thermometer, the warmest day recorded was July 23, with a 16.3C high, although Martinborough residents again had nothing to crow about when it came to their paltry amount of sunshine.
There were just 79 hours of direct sunshine in the town over the month, well down on the usual 103 for July. On the bright side, July wasn't as wet as usual - there were 83mm of rain, 88 percent of the normal 93mm for July - but nevertheless was often gusty.
Five days had wind gusts of at least 60kmh, and the gales were so strong at Castlepoint that a 148kmh gust on July 21 proved the strongest for July since recording began in 1972.
Other recordings along the coast threatened to break records - the 8.8C mean daily average at Castlepoint made it the third coldest July since 1972, while the 9.2C mean daily average at Ngawi - down 0.9 on normal - was the fourth coldest since 1972.
Across the region, the month continued what has been a miserable Wairarapa winter, with the month before being the second-coldest June in recorded history and bringing Ngawi its lowest daily maximum temperature on the books - 6.6C on June 16.
July's below-average temperatures were common over much of the country, except for near-average temperatures in the southwest of the South Island, and the north of the North Island.
It was the third month in a row with below-average temperatures over most of New Zealand - although the cold temperatures in July were not as unusual as those in May or June.
Well-below-average temperatures for July - from 1.2 to 2.0C lower than normal - were recorded in North Otago, alpine areas of Canterbury and Westland, and Waiouru.
Most other regions around the country experienced below-average July temperatures (from 0.5 to 1.0C lower than normal), except for near-average temperatures at either end of the country (in the southwest of the South Island and the north of the North Island).
The national average temperature of 7.3C was 0.4C below the long-term average for July.
It was a gloomy month also for a sun-deprived Wellington and Kapiti Coast, while rainfall was below average in South Wairarapa and also in Taranaki, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago and the rest of the lower North Island.