Summer hangs on during month of April

Rotorua has had a fairly summery March.

Rotorua's March weather was warmer and drier than normal - and the outlook for Easter looks fine, say weather experts.

MetService meteorologist John Law said the city missed out on the more extreme weather when Cyclone Pam hit the East Coast of the country.

"I think it was generally not bad.

"We had some pretty heavy rainfall in the west of the country, and we had Cyclone Pam come down and gave a fair bit of wet weather towards the east of the country."

Rotorua Airport had 69mm of rainfall in March, with 28mm falling on March 12, he said.

"The average rainfall is around 98mm, so it is a little bit below average.

"There were really warm days at the start of the month.

"The first day was 26C and the average for the month was 16C which is above average so warmer than normal as well."

Athough the weather cooled , the mercury still got to 21C on the last day of the month, he said.

"I think you are in a pretty good spot for Easter, there is a little bit more cloud for today but heading towards Saturday and Sunday should have nice spells of weather."

Local weatherman Brian Holden measures daily rainfall, temperatures and wind at Springfield.

"Rotorua's average temperature was normal for March at 16.5 degrees, but the only thing that really happened of significance was the tropical Cyclone Pam, that was it.

"We had about just over half the normal amount of rainfall, which was pretty much equally distributed through out the month, no signs of droughts.

"The outlook is pretty much the same, there is nothing dramatic in the outlook.

"It was certainly an extended summer, we keep thinking it's over and then we get beautiful days."