Weather: July in Rotorua was 'wet and miserable'

Surface flooding on Clayton Rd, Rotorua, after a night of heavy rain. Photo / File

After a dry start to the year, wet weather made its presence felt in Rotorua last month.

Brian Holden, from Springfield Weather Observations, described July's weather as "wet and miserable" but said it was about what you would expect this time of year.

He recorded a mean temperature of 7.9C for Rotorua and 161.3mm of rain across the month, well above June's 85.9mm of rainfall but only slightly higher than the 157mm expected for July.

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The coldest temperature recorded in Rotorua was -1.0C on July 4 while the coldest frost (measured via a thermometer on the ground rather than in the air) was -4.0C, which was hit on three consecutive days from July 2 to 4.

"When you get well into winter, all you seem to look forward to is for spring to come - July is often a wet and miserable month," Holden said.

"Even though we've had a lot of rain, it's not really that much higher than what you'd normally get in July."

He said, judging by previous years, we could expect August to be similar to July.

"July and August are usually similar in terms of rainfall and temperature. It's not until September that we start to get the lawn mowers out, the occasional really good day that shows summer is on the way."

MetService is predicting slightly warmer temperatures this week with a high of 16C on Tuesday and Wednesday. There is a chance of rain on Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Rotorua forecast

Today:

Fine. Light winds. Low 3C. High 13C.

Tuesday: Fine, apart from possible morning fog. Light winds. Low 4C. High 16C.

Wednesday: Cloudy periods increasing, chance shower from afternoon. Light winds. Low 7C. High 16C.

Thursday: Cloud increasing and a few showers developing. Northeasterlies. Low 9C. High 14C.

Friday: Rain developing, possibly heavy. Northeasterlies turning westerly. Low 5C. High 13C.

Saturday: A few showers. Southwesterlies. Low 5C. High 13C.

Sunday: Partly cloudy. Westerlies. Low 4C. High 12C.

Weather predictions from Metservice.