Taupō weather report: May days mainly grey in Taupō

The sun peeps out of the clouds briefly to light up the mountains to the south of Lake Taupō. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

Mostly cool, damp and drizzly conditions were the feature of last week’s weather in Taupō.

Yet again, a lack of bright sunshine was a feature and temperatures hovered at one or two degrees below the average for the last month of autumn.

There was at least one clear and sunny day last Thursday when the day started with a very light frost of -1.0 degrees, while the daytime maximum reached just 13.6 degrees.

Only very light drizzle fell during what was a rare dry week, which produced just 1.5 mm of rain, recorded on three damp mornings.

Because the days were generally mostly cloudy, the sunshine hours for May continued to be well below the monthly average.

Barometric pressures rose steadily during last week and remained stable from midweek onwards.

With just three days remaining to end the 2023 autumn, May will clearly finish as one of the wettest and dullest on record.

A full summary of weather for the month of May in Taupō will follow in next week’s Taupō & Tūrangi Herald, together with statistics for the last four days.

Weather statistics:

May 2023

Date Max Min Mean Frost Rain Pressure

May 21 14.4 9.0 11.7 0.5 1001

May 22 14.6 4.9 9.7 0.5 1007

May 23 16.8 8.6 12.7 1005

May 24 15.5 1.8 8.6 1008

May 25 13.6 0.9 7.2 -1.0 1022

May 26 11.8 1.2 6.5 1022

May 27 12.9 2.0 7.4 0.5 1022

Total for month: Five frosts and 218mm rain

May Averages:

15.7 5.3 10.6 118.6