Cold and drier than usual September in Rotorua

Rotorua had a cold but drier than usual September. Photo / File

Besides a bit of sun, September had been miserable, but a lot lot drier than usual, according to Rotorua's local weather man.

Springfield Weather Observations' Brian Holden recorded a mean temperature of 10.3C for Rotorua and 79mm of rain across the month.

He said it was normal to experience 137mm of rainfall throughout September.

For three days in September, people would have woken up to frost.

The coldest day dropped to 1C on September 4 but the temperature rose to 16C that same day, with the average minimum being 5.6C.

The maximum temperature of the month was on Sunday and reached 18.5C, with the average maximum across the month sitting at 15C.

Holden said apart from a few fine days, September finished off a "cold, wet, and miserable month".

MetService is predicting the rest of the week to Sunday to be mainly fine with possible showers.

The high for the first day of the month is 13C but is expected to reach 20C on Sunday. The low will drop to 3C tomorrow and sit at 9C on Sunday.

Holden said the focus on climate change had understandably taken second place to the pandemic.

"However this serious issue now remains," he said.

"To quote Sir David Attenborough's words at a recent conference, if nothing is done, we face 'irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies'."