Weather: One of the top five driest Septembers for Tauranga

Tauranga had a dry September. Photo / Getty Images

As summer approaches, Tauranga has experienced one of the top five driest Septembers in more than 100 years of recordings.

Metservice communications meteorologist Lewis Ferris said September was characterised by a lot of very fast moving fronts from the west/southwest replaced by regions of high pressure.

"The fast moving nature and direction of the frontal systems meant very little rain accumulated in the Tauranga area.

"Tauranga has had a very dry September, recording just 24.2mm in the rain gauge at the airport. The long time average is about 100mm. It's in the top five driest Septembers in over a 100 years of recordings."

There were just eight days with more than 0.1mm of rain, and only five with more than 1mm. The average is about 15 and 11 respectively.

The highest temperature was 20.9C recorded on the 25th. The lowest was 2.4C on the 4th.

"Both of these figures are pretty normal for the month of September," Ferris said.

He said, all in all, the forecast for the next week was looking "nice and settled".

"Small bits of wet weather are expected tomorrow

but things look pretty good through the weekend and into next week. A fairly inconsequential front is set to pass over on Wednesday and then we see a nice ridge of high pressure spread over the country," he said.