Taupō weather: June was dry and warmer than usual

Taupō's weather bucked the recent trend in June 2023 by being warmer and drier than usual. Photo / Merv Richdale

The weather in Taupō in June 2023 was dry, slightly warmer than normal, and with just the one wintry week.

Total rainfall for the month was just 47.0 millimetres, as much as 85.5mm below the June average.

Temperatures, day and night, were more than half a degree warmer, except for the second week, which produced seven consecutive frosty mornings.

In all, 10 ground frosts were recorded, the heaviest being a reading of -5.2C on Thursday, June 15.

A near-record high temperature of 17.5C was recorded on Friday June 23.

It is not uncommon for the “odd” June daytime temperature in Taupō to reach this reading as this has occurred nine times in the past.

The highest temperature of 19.9C was recorded on June 6, 2003, and the figure last month proved the second-highest-equal, as 17.5C was also recorded on June 12, 2018.

A most unusual factor last month was the very low barometric pressures brought about by weather systems sweeping up from very low latitudes in the Southern Ocean.

At the halfway stage in the year, Taupō’s six-month rainfall total stands at 783.5mm over 80 wet days and is as much as 62 per cent above the average for the year, which is 1276.5mm over 135 days.