135mm rain recorded over two days

Weatherman Brian Holden said it was a 'wetter month than usual'. Photo / Stephen Parker

It was a comparatively cold month for August with 11 frosts and close to 200mm of rain.

Rotorua weatherman Brian Holden's Springfield weather station recorded most of the frosts in the first half of the month, and 135.5mm of rain during August 19 and 20.

Mr Holden said it was a "wetter month than usual" but attributed that to the days that produced flooding and made up most of the total rainfall.

"Those two days of heavy rain and flooding contributed the most to the total rainfall for the month."

The normal rainfall for Rotorua is 163mm and this year Mr Holden recorded 198.6mm.

"If we didn't have those two days of flooding, we would have only had 35mm of rain last month, well down on the average rainfall compared with last year."

Mr Holden recorded a mean temperature of 8.4C, slightly below the normal temperature of 9C for Rotorua in August.

The average high was 14C and average low was 2.7C.

"We had a few cold days but overall it did warm up toward the end of the month. This winter in general there have been more frosts than we've seen in quite a few years."