April weather all over the place
April was no sunny holiday in Cuba for Taranaki residents as the region weathered everything from tornadoes and thunderstorms to torrential rain and hail, with the odd warm day thrown in for the start of autumn.
The sun shone high in Stratford, which had its hottest April day since 2011 with 25.9 degrees Celsius, as average regional temperatures dropped to 14.7C, which was 0.4C lower than the long term average, Taranaki Regional Council weather analyst Fiona Jansma reported.
Less than 20 kilometres further west, Inglewood had the coolest day in April with 2.5C.
The month’s rainfall varied throughout the region with data collection sites north of Inglewood recording between 38-91 per cent below normal.
In contrast rainfall averages in South Taranaki were 110-181 per cent above normal.
As little as 75.4mm of rain fell at Mangati, Bell Block last month, while Rimunui Station, Waitotara Valley, received 176.5 mm.
Rainfall levels since January remained above normal, between 107-212 per cent, an average of 145 per cent.
Kahui Hut, Egmont National Park, had the most number of rainy days with 23 while Kaupokonui, Manaia, had the least with 12.
More rain in parts of the region contributed to rivers flowing above normal with the highest mean flow on the Whenuakura River, Patea with 13,378 litres/sec - 6367 litres/second higher than the monthly long term average.
Soil moisture levels were above normal by between 2.41 10.12 per cent, except at Rimunui which had 27.34 per cent soil moisture - 1.53 per cent lower than long term average. Soil temperatures were for the month were above normal between 0.05C and 0.86C at all sites except Hillsborough and Rimunui Station which both had mean April soil temperature readings 0.41C and 0.17C cooler than normal.