By ANNE BESTON
Official statistics have caught up with what most of us already knew - last month had some of the coldest July temperatures for 30 years.
Nationwide, temperatures were only .9 degrees C below average but there were plenty of extremes that broke records set in 1969.
In Hanmer Forest,
north of Christchurch, temperatures plunged to an all-time low of minus 12.2.
Nearby Culverden also had its lowest recorded temperature, minus 11, as did Fairlie.
At the height of the freeze, the North Canterbury towns struggled with frozen toilets and frozen or bursting water pipes. A car froze to a garage floor in 20cm of ice.
A Reefton man died after apparently slipping off his back doorstep and hitting his head on a concrete ramp.
Parts of the North Island also had record lows.
Te Kuiti in the King Country had its lowest recorded temperature of minus 4 degrees and Turangi its third-lowest at minus 6.5.
The West Auckland suburb of Henderson had its coldest day of minus 2.9. The average minimum winter temperature for Henderson is 5.1.
Wellington Airport had a record low of minus 1.1 and Palmerston North reached an all-time low of minus 5.
Mt Ruapehu has had the biggest snow falls for 20 years and is reporting a bumper season after the disrupted seasons of the past.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research climate scientist, Dr Jim Salinger, said day temperatures had not been too much colder than average but nights had been chilly.
Frequent anticyclones south of Tasmania produced more cold southerly winds than usual over southern and eastern New Zealand, with more easterlies over the north of the country.
Dr Salinger said it was too early to say whether Niwa's winter predictions, which picked mostly average to above-average temperatures, would prove accurate.
"We do three-month outlooks so we'll wait until the end of August before we look at what we said about winter."
Herald files show that the record-breaking cold snap of July 1969 came after the country had already experienced a cold June.
Power consumption soared and there was a run on coal.
July brought strong, cold southerlies and severe frosts. The novelty of snow on the Kaimai Ranges and near Gisborne attracted sightseers by the carload.
But in 1969 the vagaries of the weather were more easily explained - they blamed it all on "the bomb".
www.nzherald.co.nz/weather
Current Special Weather Bulletin
By ANNE BESTON
Official statistics have caught up with what most of us already knew - last month had some of the coldest July temperatures for 30 years.
Nationwide, temperatures were only .9 degrees C below average but there were plenty of extremes that broke records set in 1969.
In Hanmer Forest,
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