Weather interest raised by December floods

February 1st, 2012
[by David Ogilvie, prepared for Community Board meeting]

My interest in the weather and climate is probably no more nor less than the average New Zealander - until something unusual happens, or a change is indicated. Sometimes the remarkable about our weather also becomes newsworthy. This applies to the December 2011 rainfall totals.

In Motueka, December 2011 registered 295.5mm of rain, outscoring the previous record high for December of 262.2mm. Contrast this with Nelson for December 463.8mm (180.7mm previously) and for Takaka of 1216.3mm (284.6mm previously).

Motueka's annual rainfall for 2011 was 1680.9mm, which was 430mm or 34% above the annual average. Nelson's 2011 rainfall totalled 1466.5mm which was 528mm or 56% above average; Takaka had 3223mm in 2011 which was 1083mm or 51% above its annual average.

Our weather details are recorded locally from Brooklyn and include temperature, rainfall, humidity and wind details. They do not record sunshine hours.

Nelson, with 2487 hours was the sunniest place in New Zealand for 2011. Interestingly the Brooklyn weather station once measured the sunshine hours which usually exceeded those of Nelson. The rumour is that Brooklyn's sunshine hours recording technology was removed because Nelson didn't like being upstaged as the sunniest place in New Zealand!!!

This may be a "story" that Motueka reporters can investigate, with the objective of having Brooklyn once again recording our sunshine hours! In the meantime, we will bask in Nelson's sunshine and reputation.

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