Niwa: June enters record books for warmth and sunshine

Political reporter·NZ Herald·

4 Jul, 2016 05:30 PM3 mins to read

Napier had the highest June temperature with 25.1C on June 10. Photo / Janet Gichard

Warm oceans, abnormal air pressures and frequent winds from the north helped New Zealand have its third warmest June on record.

It was also one of the sunniest, with sunshine hours up more than 100 per cent across the country thanks to the dry weather.

The statistics come from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), which today released its climate summary for June.

It said much like May, the warmer than usual ocean surrounding the country not only contributed to unseasonable warmth on land but also created an environment that was more conducive for strong storms.

However, unlike May, most towns didn't hit rainfall records though several one-day maximum or near maximum extreme downfalls did occur which Niwa said spoke to the isolated nature of the showers.

Nugget Point in Otago experienced its driest June since records began in 1930.

Air pressure was also higher than normal to the east of New Zealand while lower than normal pressures hung to the southwest of the country -- combined with the warm oceans this meant more warm winds from the north.

This helped Christchurch and Dunedin have their warmest June on record with many climate stations in New Zealand recording above average by up to or above 1.2C, with some spots in the South Island experiencing record or near-record warmth.

Across the country the average temperature was 10.2C making it the warmest June on record.

And some of the extreme weather events included:

June 22: Brief but torrential downpours caused surfacing flooding around Auckland during the afternoon and evening, and forced the evacuation of a motel in Tokoroa.

June 23: Heavy rain led to a slip on State Highway 25 along the Coromandel Peninsula and surface flooding in the Bay of Plenty.

June 29: Heavy rain caused flash flooding at a factory, a primary school and homes in Auckland and slips in the Bay of Plenty.

* Of the six main centres, Auckland was the warmest and tied with Wellington as the wettest, Christchurch was sunniest and driest, Tauranga was the cloudiest, and Dunedin was the coolest.