Weather wrap: Drier July for Tauranga

Tauranga had less than 90mm of rainfall in July. Photo / File

It started to feel like winter in Tauranga last month but MetService data shows it was much drier than the same period in previous years.

While July was the second wettest month so far this year, the 84.8mm of rainfall was well below the historical average of 127mm. In the same period last year there was 152mm of rainfall recorded.

This was a big drop from the 270.8mm of rainfall in June this year. The highest recorded rainfall on one day in July was 22mm on July 6.

Meanwhile, temperatures in Tauranga dropped to their lowest this year. The lowest temperature recorded was 1.3C on July 10 while the highest was 18.1C on July 14. The respective historical averages are 0.5C and 17.4C.

Metservice meteorologist Tom Adams said winter was a time of "pretty active weather systems".

"The last week has been pretty stable with high pressure over the area. The month kicked off with high pressure spreading across the country and it was fairly settled until a brief spell of rain around the 6th.

"We had a brief hiatus until the next low pressure system which came through about the 15th and 16th - that brought significant rain and flooding for Northland, nothing near as significant as that for the Bay of Plenty but a bit of water in the rain gauges."

He said Western Bay of Plenty had not felt the cold as much as other areas of the country so far this year.

"Around this time of year you expect temperatures around 15C in the day and 7C at night which is pretty close to what we have seen [in July]. We haven't had a lot of good cold snaps up from the southern ocean, certainly not as far as the Bay of Plenty."

Forecasted weather for Tauranga

Today:

Cloudy periods and chance of a shower. Easterlies. Low 7C. High 16C.

Tuesday: A fine day. Light winds. Low 8C. High 17C.

Wednesday: Cloudy periods, chance of a shower. Northeasterlies developing towards evening. Low 11C. High 17C.

Thursday: Cloud increasing, chance of a shower. Northeasterlies. Low 11C. High 16C.

Friday: Rain developing. Northeasterlies turning westerly. Low 7C. High 16C.

Saturday: A few showers. Southwesterlies. Low 7C. High 15C.

Sunday: Fine. Westerlies. Low 7C. High 15C.

Weather predictions from Metservice.