Sun shines on Taranaki as region keeps grip on title

A record number of sunshine hours at the start of the year is helping Taranaki stay on track to defend its 2021 title as New Zealand’s sunniest place.

Figures from the September Niwa climate summary show Taranaki has had 1907 sunshine hours so far this year, ahead of Bay of Plenty with 1863 hours, wider Nelson with 1806 and Auckland with 1750.

A good chunk of those hours came in January, when Taranaki hit a record-breaking 358.6 hours of sunshine.

Nationally, the average number of sunshine hours for January sits at 287 – nearly 100 hours less than Taranaki’s record.

Niwa climate scientist Gregor Macara said January’s numbers were the reason Taranaki was tracking so well – ‘‘because it got off to such a good start’’.

Macara said this year’s January record was exceptional, and the highest number recorded in at least a decade.

However, the equipment used to measure sunshine in each region changed 10 years ago, meaning some statistics were different and may have been higher before then. Initially, a Campbell-Stokes recorder, a glass sphere burning a hole into a wooden bowl, was used to understand how many hours of sunshine there had been.

‘‘It takes a bit of time for the heat of the sun going through the glass sphere getting hot enough to burn a trace into the card.’’

In 2011, that equipment changed to an electronic device.

‘‘As soon as that sun meets the threshold of what’s thought of as bright sunshine, then it starts recording that time right away, there’s no lag,’’ Macara said. ‘‘There is that caveat as I say, and it’s quite an important one because there is quite a difference between the two instruments.’’

Although he can’t predict the sunshine for upcoming months, Macara is anticipating a heat wave to arrive over the region for a warm summer: ‘‘Most people are generally very happy to hear we are expecting a warmer summer than normal.’’