Now and then

2016/17: Wellington clocks up hottest year on record for 2016, in line with a global trend. The year ended with below average temperatures and sunshine hours, and near normal rainfall. 2015/16: Temperatures were slightly up for January, as was rainfall, but sunshine hours were down.

2014/15: Paraparaumu and Wellington had record low rain in January, with 4mm and 2mm, respectively. Wellington was the driest centre for January.

2013/14: Dry, sunny days on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. Wellington temperatures were 1.3C above their December average hovering at about 16.7 - and the city received about 60 per cent of its usual rain.

2012/13: Cyclone Evan brought very high Christmas and Boxing Day temperatures from Taranaki to Wellington. Drought was declared in Northland and northern Auckland in late-February and extended to the whole of the North Island by mid-March.

2011/12: After a year of extreme weather, 2012 began hot and sunny, bar some early January flooding in Hawke’s Bay. The summer was the worst for hayfever sufferers in five years.

2010/11: La Nina brought a warm summer for the region and above average rainfall for Hawke’s Bay.

2009/10: It was a wet summer, with a Met-Service forecaster saying on January 22, ‘‘the last dry weekend in Wellington was in mid-November’’.

2008/09: 2008 was the third wettest year since 1864, but the summer was glorious, thanks to higher air pressures over the Pacific Ocean. 2007/08: After a year of drought, tornadoes and lahars, a La Nina brought a warm summer to the central and Lower North Island.