The significance of sunshine
It’s finally time to get out the sunscreen and the backyard wickets, but there’s more to fine weather than remembering to slip slop slap and wrap, writes Christina Persico.
David Chadfield would gladly take another three months of ‘‘Samurai Summer’’. Chadfield owns Chaddy’s Charters in New Plymouth, which provides cruises, paddle boards, kayaks and bike rides, and says the last 18 months have been rough going for summer-oriented businesses.
‘‘This year we’re having now is similar to the year when we had The Last Samurai,’’ he said, referring to the long hot summer of 2003 when Tom Cruise and Hollywood descended on the region to film the epic movie.
‘‘That gives us a La Nina summer, which will be brilliant. We’ll only do well with that.’’
Chadfield says he has fewer school kids at the moment. He usually gets around 1000 at this time of year, but because the weather was so uncertain even just a few weeks ago, no-one had wanted to risk booking in advance.
‘‘We’ve only had 300 or 400, mainly because people didn’t want to plan that far ahead.’’
Chadfield says the difference was noticeable after a long period of poor weather.
‘‘The last four weeks or five weeks we’ve just been packed.
‘‘People are wanting to get out now. You look at the breakwater: every evening there’s hundreds of people walking down the breakwater. Paritutu’s got a dozen people on it.’’
But Chadfield says he does feel for the farmers who, despite the region having seemingly constant rain for the first 10 months of the year, need more.
November in Taranaki was unusually fine, with rainfall between 97 and 16 per cent below average.
Taranaki Regional Council data analyst Fiona Jansma says many sites have had no rain since November 16, and very little since the first week of last month.
‘‘Eight sites recorded new November minimum rainfalls for the month. ..Inland rainfall sites were looking at recordi ng low rainfall totals for the month, but they had a boost in their rainfall totals thanks to some mid-afternoon thunderstorms near the end of the month.’’
Soil moisture levels, though still at medium or high, have been steadily decreasing in many spots over the last week.
And it’s the threat of drought that could really affect farmers and, in turn, the rest of us.
Financially, good weather doesn’t greatly affect the economy unless it gets into drought territory, said Nathan Penny, senior rural economist for ASB.
‘‘In general the tourism sector does well when the weather is fine.. .A good tourism season could lift the economy by a modest amount.’’
However, there is a fine line between a nice summer and a drought, and he says a drought’s impact can be extensive.
‘‘Most of our power’s hydro-generated; if the storage lakes get too low then we can have higher power prices and/or some form of restrictions, whether that is through conservation measures or something else. Some companies may be asked to cut production.’’
Agriculture is the sector worst affected by extreme weather, with milk production going down or farmers sometimes having to slaughter stock early due to lack of feed.
‘‘But they often get it back in the price because the milk price goes higher.’’
And there are other downsides to long fine spells.
Dr Matt
Williams, from the School of
Psychology at Massey University, wrote his PhD on the effects of climate change on human behaviour.
Temperature is a very small factor, he says, but it does have an impact. ‘‘We do feel happier on a sunny day but that won’t be the case for all of us. ‘‘Having a nice warm spell is enjoyable, but then if you’re exposed to heat stress for a long stretch of time it can make you irritable and grumpy.’’ Studies overseas have shown high rates of mortality during heat waves for those with mental health conditions.
In extreme cases, he says, violence such as self-harm and suicide can increase.
‘‘All those types of violence, they’re actually slightly higher rates on days that are hotter than average. ‘‘We’re talking about around about two per cent of assault rates for every degree temperatures increase above the average for that time of year.’’ And then there’s crime. A police spokesperson said crime can happen in any season, but different weather produces different challenges for the boys in blue. ‘‘The warm weather often means there’s more people on the roads, and the festive season can mean people are at more social events too, often with the presence of alcohol. ‘‘Summer also means there are more people spending time in the water, whether that’s swimming or out on the boat.’’
Late last month the police launched Operation Blitzen, the first of several road policing operations planned for Central District this summer. Officers at a checkpoint in New Plymouth caught two over-the-limit drivers within their first hour.
They launched their Christmas road safety campaign on December 1. Nationally, more people have been killed on our roads this year than any year since 2010, says assistant commissioner for Road Policing, Sandra Venables.
Over the holiday period anyone driving more than 4km over the speed limit is likely to be ticketed.
‘‘Police cannot do this alone; we need everyone’s help to keep our roads safe,’’ she said. ‘‘We want you here for Christmas.’’
In the health sector, Taranaki Base Hospital has returned to its normal resourced capacity after the high demand of winter but has not yet seen the dip in demand that often happens over summer.
‘‘Generally over the summer months we do notice a decrease in presentations to the medical and paediatric wards,’’ said Taranaki District Health Board chief operations officer Gillian Campbell.
‘‘This is particularly for respiratoryrelated illnesses, when people are out enjoying the summer weather and participating in more outdoor activities. At times we will notice an increase in injuries related to outdoor endeavours.’’
And the rest of December, at least, is expected to stay summery.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) forecasted a La Nina weather pattern that would bring above-average land and sea temperatures to all parts of New Zealand between December and February.
It will possibly be New Plymouth’s warmest December on record, says Metservice meteorologist Georgina Griffiths.
The high over the country was bringing dry, sunny weather to the region and had helped ramp up the sea surface temperatures off the coast, she said.
‘‘Together with light winds there had been little mixing of the ocean surface water and we have got
‘‘Having a nice warm spell is enjoyable, but then if you’re exposed to heat stress for a long stretch of time it can make you irritable and grumpy.’’
Dr Matt Williams
School of Psychology at Massey University
abnormally warm sea water.’’
Griffiths said the sea temperatures had probably risen 3-4 degrees off the Taranaki coastline.
‘‘That sort of increase is really, really abnormal.’’
But the warm weather is still a real blessing for some.
Days at the beach, lake or river are often followed by an ice cream, and Iona Dairy on St Aubyn St is world famous in Taranaki for their ice creams, and owner Andy Chen has certainly noticed the difference a better summer makes.
They sell 23 flavours, with cookies and cream, gummy gummy gumdrops and caramel fudge being the most popular.
He said weekends tend to be busier, often selling 400-500 ice creams on a Sunday. Depending on the weather, they can sell around 200 on a general day.
‘‘We start being busy from November,’’ he said. ‘‘In the nice weather lots of people come and have ice cream, even from Australia.’’
And some of them will then head down to Breakwater Bay, where David Chadfield will be waiting for them. He couldn’t be happier with the weather so far.
‘‘My business is totally summer oriented,’’ he says, looking out at the sparkling blue water.
‘‘Personally I don’t mind if it stays like this every day for three months.’’