Palmerston North has wettest August on MetService records

Palmerston North has recorded its wettest August since Metservice records began. Photo / File

Are the weather gods just playing catch-up in Manawatū?

The wettest August in Palmerston North on record came hot on the heels of a relatively dry start to the year according to MetService Te Ratonga Tirorangi.

It was a dry start to the year for the city with 394.9mm recorded for the six months ending July, compared to the climate average of 485.5mm.

That amount of rainfall for the first six months of the year was also significantly less than had been recorded at the same area for the past three years - 521mm in 2021, 587mm in 2022 and 524mm in 2023.

However, it wasn’t the driest six-month period on record. That was in 2007 when the station at Palmerston North airport recorded just 331mm of rain between January and July.

June this year was an especially dry month, just 42.3mm of rain reported - making it the fourth driest June according to MetService records dating back to 1991, while only 27.3mm was recoded at the same station in June last year.

That was a drop in the bucket compared to the 156mm of rain that fell last month in Palmerston North - twice the average amount for August (66mm), and a record wettest for August at that station.

A MetService spokesperson said the dominance of westerly winds has been the main factor for the August rain.

Westerly winds are forecast to stick around until the middle of September in the region, after which more settled conditions are forecast to return.