OUR CRAZY SUMMER

hottes t It’s the … and the wettest

February was the wettest ever for two spots around the country since records began, while the rest of the country experienced what’s being labelled an “unsettled” month.

The month broke rainfall records in Nelson and Blenheim, which MetService said highlighted the huge impact of the two cyclones in the upper South Island over this time.

Nelson airport recorded 234mm, a whopping 370 per cent of the normal rainfall recorded in February.

Rain readers at Blenheim Airport recorded 199mm, or four times the normal amount for the area.

MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths said while the amount of rainfall was unusual, February was often “boom or bust” in terms of wetness.

“The month is often characterised by deluge rainfall — or none at all.” As summer draws to a close, a roundup of February’s weather statistics shows that frequent lows and persistent northerly winds resulted in an extremely wet month right across the country. Main centres like Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch all experienced more than 200 per cent more rainfall than usual over the month.

The extremes extended to the temperatures, which were also higher than normal in most spots. These scorching temperatures contributed to what is the hottest summer on record.

Climate scientist Jim Salinger said final figures for the month revealed the average temperature over the country was 0.9C above average.

“This puts the summer 2017/18 value of NZT at 18.8C, 2.2C above average,” he said.

Salinger said the main drivers were climate change, the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and the weak La Nina episode.

Temperatures averaged at 21.2C for Auckland, close to 1C hotter than the average temperature normally recorded for February.