Record winter gloom looms for Wellington

Wellingtonians complaining about the weather are right – the capital had just 27 hours of sun this month.

If the trend continues, the capital could mark its darkest June since 1982.

MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said to break the record, the capital needed less than 34.2 hours of sun, or less than 3.1 hours of sun a day, for the rest of June.

Despite the shortest day of 2018 landing today, McInnes said the sun could come out at the end of the week. ‘‘Beyond that, more wind and rain will bring cloudier periods again, so it very much is up in the air.’’

Wellington had 122.8mm of rain to date this month, she said.

New Zealand as a whole had experienced southeasterly winds in the past weeks, she said.

‘‘This means Wellington becomes less sheltered and experience wetter weather.

‘‘We are far off a record and are on track for our monthly average (140mm) with 11 days still left in the month.’’

The rest of the month would be fairly mixed, she said.

A high-pressure system setting up over the country would help calm down and clear up the weather, she said.

‘‘Following that a few more fronts are likely to bring some more cloud and wet weather, with possible finer breaks in between.

Christchurch was suffering a darker June than Wellington.

The Garden City recorded just 13 hours and 48 minutes of sunlight recorded so far – well below the 119-hour average for the month. Only six days have been rain free.

In the weekend Wellington’s sport fields were red-carded by the city council with a number of ground restrictions due to relentless rain. Wellington City Council parks, sport and recreation operations manager Wendi Henderson said sports grounds had not had a chance to dry.

Henderson said it had been many years since she could remember sport fields being so wet this early in winter.

‘‘Hopefully this wet start to June is not a sign of things to come for the rest of winter.’’