Wellington endures coldest start to year in a decade

By Mary Argue of RNZ

Complaining about the weather is somewhat of a national pastime, but Wellington residents are justified in bemoaning this summer.

The capital has had one of its worst starts to the year on record, with Wellingtonians weathering the longest run of cold days in a decade, according to MetService data.

Wellingtonians spoken to by RNZ described this year’s summer to date variously as “a buzz kill”, “crap”, “pretty trash”, and “one of the worst in memory”.

Meteorologist Clare O’Connor said the feelings were backed up by the data, with a streak of low temperature days – 13 in a row – making the start of the year the least summery since 2014, and putting it among a handful in the past four decades.

She said while the daily average temperature of 17C for January was not exactly balmy, it was almost 3C above the current daily average of 14.3C.

“Digging back into our records, going back to 1980, this is one of the longer runs of below-average daily temperatures that we’ve had in the summer months.”

She said while the cool temperatures were set to continue for the next couple of days, she said it was unlikely to top the peak streak of 17 in 2006.

Photo / RNZ / Mary Argue

She said continuous southerlies – which have caused major disruptions to Cook Strait ferry services – were largely to blame for the cooler temperatures, bringing wind gusts of up to 100km/h and double the average rainfall for the year to date.

“[The southerlies] are being driven by low pressure to the east of the North Island [pushing] colder southerly air up over the east of the country.

“Wellington and the lower North Island is really exposed, so it brings that cold air up over us and cloudy days.

“With that rain as well, it’s all going to contribute to less than ideal summer weather.”

O’Connor said the start to the year was a sharp contrast to 2024’s above-average temperatures.

She said while last year’s Wellington Anniversary weekend was 29C – a January high not seen since 1971 – this year’s holiday would be lucky to reach the low 20s.

“We’re looking at 21C as our maximum for Wellington Anniversary weekend.

“But I will say it’s much easier to sleep than it was January last year.”

Hope remained, O’Connor said, for temperatures to pick up next month, with records showing some low-temperature Januarys were followed by warm Februarys.

However, she would not make any promises.

The southerlies have also seen Wellington’s popular inner-city Oriental Bay beach almost deserted this season.

Surf lifesaver Sarah Hay said it had been a “pretty slow start to the summer”.

“The first four weeks of our paid lifeguard service have been pretty dead.

“Not many people on the beach at all.”

She suspected the cold start to the season was keeping all but the diehard Wellingtonians at bay.

“The water temperature has been really low compared to previous years and the winds have been quite cold and strong.”

Hay said Monday’s 15C was 3C below the average of 18C for this year, but said it was expected to climb to 16.7C next week.

- RNZ