No escape: wettest city heating up

Wellington had record-setting weather in 2021 – the warmest year on record – while being the wettest main centre in the country.

Niwa’s annual report of weather and climate activity, released yesterday, revealed its Wellington Airport site reported the warmest year since 1962.

Its Kelburn site reported aboveaverage temperatures, which were in line with the rest of the country, where most locations also reported above-average temperatures.

In terms of rainfall, December was a ‘‘notable finish’’ for the year in the capital, Niwa forecaster Nava Fedaeff said.

‘‘Wellington Airport recorded more than three times its normal December rainfall, and it was the second-wettest December on record at the airport since records began in 1958,’’ she said.

The airport site also recorded the second-wettest day in December on record and Kelburn recorded the third-wettest December day since recording began.

Kelburn experienced 279 per cent of normal rainfall in December, more than 21⁄ times the nor2 mal amount of December rainfall, making it the third-wettest December recorded at the site since 1928.

When 76mm fell at the airport on the 6th, it was the secondwettest December day since 1958.

On the same day, Kelburn recorded 73mm of rain, the thirdwettest December day there since 1928.

During the deluge, several vehicles were swamped when the Hutt River rose, while torrential rain in July brought slips down around Wellington that cut off SH2 between Wellington and the Hutt Valley, and forced the evacuation of homes in northern suburbs.

‘‘It was a wet finish to the year,’’ Fedaeff said.

Niwa’s annual report showed that nationwide it was the hottest year on record.

The mean temperature in the capital reached 13.7 degrees Celsius – 0.8 of a degree warmer than usual, and ahead of the national average of 13.56 degrees.

Of the six main centres, Auckland was the warmest, Wellington the wettest, Dunedin the coolest and driest, Tauranga the sunniest and Hamilton the least sunny.

This week, Niwa released its three-month outlook which showed Wellington is in for a dry and warm start to the year.

‘‘[It] is expected to continue to stay warm, which it has been which is quite rare for Wellington and on the drier side of normal as well,’’ Fedaeff said.

Weather in 2021 had the hallmark signs of a warming planet, said Professor Dave Frame, director of the Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington’s Climate Change Research Institute.