Wind gusts of almost 90km/h batter Whanganui region over blustery weekend

The waves at Whanganui's South Mole were rough as the region was buffeted by wind on Monday. Photo / Bevan Conley

Wind speeds around 90km/h were recorded in Whanganui over a particularly windy weekend for the region.

MetService meteorologist Dom Barry said the maximum windspeed recorded in Whanganui during the weekend was an 87km/h gust clocked at Whanganui Airport around 7pm on Sunday.

Across the weekend, the region recorded a mean windspeed of 63km/h.

Heavy winds battered much of the country over the weekend and Monday. Gusts of more than 240km/h were recorded on Sunday night on the North Island’s East Coast, near the fastest wind speed ever recorded in New Zealand, and more than 10,000 homes lost power overnight.

Fire & Emergency Whanganui station officer Shane Dudley said they had no calls over the weekend to weather-related incidents.

“Nobody in Whanganui went out, but they were pretty busy in Wellington,” he said.

Barry said spring tended to be a particularly eventful season for wind, so the Whanganui region’s gusts were not out of the ordinary.

“Spring is generally a variable [season] when it comes to the wind situation,” Barry said.

This was especially true currently, as Aotearoa was in the process of transitioning from a La Niña climate driver to an El Niño, which came with an expectation for stronger westerly winds.

“We are expecting more and more westerly flow wind transitions, which is what happened over the weekend.”

Whether winds would reach the same strength as recorded over the weekend was yet to be seen, but he said MetService expected them to be stronger than in previous months.

Barry said the westerly winds which had buffeted the region were expected to reduce in strength on Monday evening.

By Tuesday, they would be replaced by calmer northwesterlies.

Conditions were expected to stay mainly fine and calm in the region for the start of the week.

Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.