Whanganui weather: September rainfall well up on average

Whanganui had an increase in rainfall on September last year. Photo / File

September had significantly more rain than usual for Whanganui caused by "rapidly passing fronts", according to MetService.

Across September, Whanganui had 110.6mm of rain recorded at the Whanganui Airport weather centre. The long-term average for Whanganui in September is about 75mm.

The rainfall was up significantly from last year also, where only 45.5mm of rain was measured.

Niwa, New Zealand's national climate centre, said although most of the North Island had lower than average rainfall, it was notable that Whanganui's rainfall was higher than average.

MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris put the cause of the substantial rainfall down to large fronts.

"The month of September was characterised by many rapidly passing fronts from the southwest which brought a more than average number of rain days."

In the temperature stakes, it was relatively cooler than the city had in the past.

The hottest temperature recorded was 20.6C on the 26th, and the coolest morning was 1C on the 4th. This is slightly below 2019, where the highest recorded temperature was 22C and the lowest was 3.6C.

Whanganui's average temperature for the month of September was in line with that of the averages of other New Zealand cities, which had very little change.

Further across the country, towards the northern North Island, there was substantially lower rainfall than average, but much more significant winds.

On September 29, more than 700 properties across the wider Whanganui region were without power after strong winds brought down trees on to powerlines.