Weather extremes typical of springtime

October 2022 in Taupō opened with rare weather extremes, typical of spring.

A glance at the accompanying weather statistic chart for the first part of the month will reflect these extremes.

Rain though, continues to be very much the feature. A sharp frost and even flurries of snow were also on the weather menu.

A very heavy 24-hour rainfall began the month, with 47mm recorded for the first 24 hours.

With 23 days of the month remaining, at the time of this report, Taupō ’s average monthly rainfall has almost been reached.

October 6 was an extremely cold day as the mercury during the day reached a very cold maximum of 8.6 degrees Celsius and shortly before 1pm, as the air temperature was a mere 2.0 degrees, snow flurries were observed.

The following morning a heavy frost of minus 6.1 was registered. While it is quite rare for Taupō to record snow flurries in October it

While it is quite rare for Taupō to record snow flurries in October it is not unheard of.

is not unheard of.

Another feature of the October weather so far, has been the sudden rise in barometric pressure as the system responsible for the rain and cold just as quickly moved away.

On the morning of Sunday, October 9, the barometric pressure read 1037 hPa the highest reading since July 31, 2020 when the reading was 1039.5 hPa. This will appear on next week’s summary.