Shortest day coldest
The shortest day of the year was also the coldest so far in Timaru for 2017. Metservice forecaster Cameron Coutts said the Timaru Airport weather station recorded a temperature of minus 4.5 degrees Celsius between 7 and 7.30am yesterday, its lowest this year. Niwa meteorologist Ben Nolle said its Timaru Gardens weather station recorded a low of minus 0.8C, among the lowest this year. Coutts said Timaru could be up for some rainy weather over the next few days. ’’We’ve got a bit of a change coming, we’ve got cold coming up from the Tasman.’’ The low temperatures coincided with Timaru’s fifth high air pollution day this year. Environment Canterbury’s monitoring station at Anzac Square recorded a daily hour average PM10 concentration of 58 micrograms of suspended particulate per cubic metre of air pollution.