By Ingrid Hipkiss
If you think it’s been a gloomy, wet winter, you’d be right.
The weather in August set records for cloudy, dull weather and it was wetter than normal in many places.
September 1 marks the official start of spring, so is all that about to change?
Locals at Christchurch’s Hagley Park today say it’s about time the weather picked up – August has been the Garden City’s cloudiest ever.
The silver lining is that it has been a mild winter everywhere – one degree warmer than average – with fewer southerlies, even in the capital. That is set to continue.
“Above average spring temperatures are likely in all regions of New Zealand, so really much milder than normal,” says climate scientist Georgina Griffith.
That is courtesy of a La Nina weather pattern, which is also to blame for some areas being wetter than usual.
Case in point, the Whakatane region was struck by extensive flooding.
“We’ve had a shocker August,” says Ms Griffith.
“Apart from the fact it’s been very warm in most areas. It’s been wet and cloudy everywhere.”
In fact, the whole country has had 15 percent less sunshine than normal.
The Far North, Bay of Plenty and parts of Otago and Canterbury have had twice their usual rainfall.
That wet weather will continue to plague the northeast.
Spring kicks off whitebait season and in Greymouth they’re picking a good one.
3 News