Wet Taupō weekend ends dry spell

It was a wet and wild weekend in Taupō in more ways than one. Pictured is Ken Lipton on Lake Taupō, winning the powerboat competition. Photo / Merv Richdale

Last week’s weather in Taupō proved to be a week of complete contrasts.

A near-record run of 14 consecutive January days with no rain ended on Thursday, January 26 and was followed by a complete drenching.

While the rain that fell was certainly not of the same magnitude as the amounts that fell in Auckland and elsewhere, it was nonetheless most significant.

81 millimetres of rainfall was recorded on January 27, and that was followed the next morning by a reading of 87mm, a total of 168mm over two days.

Records show that January 2011 was our wettest January month, and a 24-hour rainfall of 157mm on January 23 that year remains Taupō’s wettest January day.

Our monthly rainfall is currently almost three times the January average, with three days remaining at the time of this report.

Besides producing a near-record wet weekend, last week’s weather remained cooler than usual for summer, although the evening temperatures remained mild and humid.

The daytime maximum temperatures were, in fact, more than 4C below the January average, while the evening temperatures were almost 1C higher than the average for January.

Weekly summary

Date, Max, Min, Mean, Frost, Rain Pressure

22, 22.0, 15.3, 18.7, 1017

23, 23.5, 10.4, 16.9, 1020

24, 20.0, 11.9, 15.9, 1021

25, 22.6, 12.9, 17.7, 1025

26, 22.2, 13.2, 17.7, 1026

27, 18.0, 13.5, 15.8, 81.0, 1020

28, 20.3, 14.9, 17.6, 87.0, 1013

Total for month: 231.5

January averages

25.4, 12.8, 18.8, 86.5