It was a windy October in Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley
It was a windy October in Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley
It's all the Ws for Whanganui's weather in November - warmer, wetter and westerly winds.
After days of unrelenting strong wind in October, the start of November brings a different kind of weather, MetService meteorologist Stephen Glassey says.
Winds will change to the northwest quarter and temperatures will be warmerduring the first half of the month. It may also be wetter than usual.
November began with a predicted heat wave, caused by hot, dry weather moving west from drought-stricken Australia. But those high temperatures mainly happened in eastern and inland parts of New Zealand.
Kawerau, in the Bay of Plenty, recorded a record November high of 34.6C on November 4.
For the west it was different. In Whanganui the heat was moderated by westerly breezes blowing off the sea, which is still quite cool at this time of year.
However, we did reach highs of 20C and 24C on November 2 and 3 - and the average November high is just 20C.
Those warmer temperatures were likely to continue until a return to westerlies in the second half of this month, Glassey said.
Those westerlies will be familiar, since October was a turbulent month of very unsettled weather with low pressure systems and strong westerly winds. The days from October 7-14 were relatively calm, but the wind was especially bad on October 21-24, with gusts of 80km/h.
"To get 80km/h in an urban area, consistently over four days, that's quite significant," Glassey said.
Waiouru recorded its highest-ever wind gust on October 19 - 115km/h. MetService starts issuing warnings when wind speeds top 110km/h.
Despite all that wind, Whanganui only got 73mm of rain in October - less than the average.
There were lots of short, sharp bursts of weather with fitful showers.
The strong wind days of October 21-24 were an exception, with decent falls of 10.6mm, 8.4mm and 3.2mm across them.
It was a windy October in Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley
Overall it was New Zealand's coldest October since 2012, Niwa said.
The highest temperature in Whanganui was 22C, on October 10, during a calm spell. On some other days the maximum was only 12C - and further reduced by wind chill.
September and October temperatures were both cooler than average for the first time since the year 2000.
However, Niwa's Seasonal Climate Outlook, published at the end of October, says all New Zealand regions can expect near average or above average temperatures over the next three months.
The outlook summary also said heavy rainfall events were possible in the South Island and west of the North Island and South Island during November.
