Taranaki winning 2021 sunniest spot race
Grab your sun hats and slap on the sunscreen – Taranaki is in first place in the sunshine race as the country’s sunniest province so far in 2021.
The west coast region, known for its high rainfall, westerly winds and lush green paddocks full of dairy cows, has recorded 1033 hours of sunshine so far this year. That’s more than any other region.
The figures from the latest National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) climate summary give Taranaki bragging rights, for now, over some of the country’s well-known ‘‘sunny’’ regions.
Bay of Plenty, home to the nation’s favourite Ohope Beach, recorded 997 hours, sauvignon blanc region Marlborough recorded 992, while grass growing Hawke’s Bay and Horowhenua had 964.
The sunny news has delighted former TV weatherman, and Taranaki local, Jim Hickey.
‘‘Get that up ya, Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay,’’ he said.
The La Nin˜ a summer weather pattern was behind Taranaki’s elevation to top spot, Hickey said.
‘‘It’s pretty strange, the anticyclones have hung around longer giving a dry summer.
‘‘As a result Taranaki has been sheltered from the warm northeasterly winds from the tropics, while rainfall has been short sharp bursts.’’
Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said Taranaki benefited from frequent high pressure systems around the country between January and April. ‘‘These atmospheric factors produced lots of sunny days over New Plymouth at the start of the year, with more settled weather and less clouds.’’
New Plymouth’s sunshine hours were above normal, with 315 hours recorded in January, and 287 hours in February, he said.
‘‘March and April had less sunshine but still above normal as a result of the high pressure system remaining,’’ Noll said.
‘‘There was some rain but also extended dry spells.’’
Noll said the recordings were very accurate, and collected by the climate station instrumentation at New Plymouth airport which included a modern high-precision electronic sunshine sensor.
Historically, a Campbell Stokes sunshine instrument was used, which burnt a hole in a sun card.
The accuracy of that instrument has been called into question in the past when Taranaki found itself among the country’s sunniest spots.
In 2013 its second sunniest spot was ‘‘queried’’ by Niwa when sunshine hours jumped following a change in the sunshine recording instrument.
Noll warned Taranaki people against becoming too cocky about their clear blue skies. ‘‘It’s not a sprint, we’ll see how New Plymouth tracks for the rest of the year.’’
Noll said the seasonal outlook from May to July nationwide included less rainfall, above average or near average temperatures, and brief periods of frosty, chilly weather.
Taranaki Regional Council weather data analyst Fiona Jansma said the average temperature for April was 14.74 degrees Celsius, or 0.24C warmer than the long-term average for the month, with the warmest day recorded in Inglewood at 25.58C. Whareroa, South Taranaki, recorded the coolest temperature with 0.74C.
Rainfall across Taranaki was
35-94 per cent below normal at all sites, except Dawson Falls, she said.
New Zealand had its warmest April on record since 2014, with an average temperature of 14.2C, or
0.9C above the monthly average, Niwa reported.