Tauranga takes year's weather titles

Tauranga's weather this year earned it honours for both sunshine and rain.

MetService figures show it enjoyed 233 more sunshine hours than Auckland to top North Island figures, but was the wettest city in the country.

On an average year Tauranga gets 2258 hours of sun, compared with Nelson's 2411 hours and Blenheim's 2435. Auckland scores 2067. As of Thursday evening, Tauranga had received 2472 hours of sunshine.

Nelson was the country's sunshine capital, with 2552 hours as of Thursday, and Blenheim had 2437. Auckland outstripped its average to record 2239 hours, which was likely to rise today. "That should bring a smile to people's faces," MetService forecaster Ian Miller said.

While Tauranga basked in almost 10 per cent more sun than usual, it also had nearly 40 per cent more rain - 1683mm as of Thursday evening compared with an average of 1207mm.

Mr Miller said the huge jump could be attributed mainly to the devastating floods of May 18, when the city received 350mm of rain in 24 hours.

The rain submerged suburbs and sent homes tumbling down hills.

Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby greeted the news that his city was the rainiest this year with little surprise.

"There's no doubt we've had a particularly wet year," he said.

Of the long sunshine hours, he said: "We need the sun to dry out."

Auckland was ninth wettest of the 14 main centres, with 986mm of rain as of Thursday compared with its annual average of 1103mm.

The driest city was Christchurch, followed by Dunedin, both about 200mm below average with 630mm and 687 respectively. Wellington had 827mm, below its 1002mm average.