WeatherWatch: Farmers only ones to gain in cop-out summer

Plenty of rain and plenty of grass growth meant dairy farmers had one of their better summers in many years. Photo / Thinkstock

Whether you live in New Zealand or Australia the weather these past few months has been a shocker for holidaymakers and summer-lovers.

Yes, we've had a few glimpses of traditional summer but, for the most part, it was colder and cloudier. I was looking through my technical weather handbook and the word that sums up summer here and in Australia is "crap".

Summer brought New Zealand more cloud and cooler weather. Much of Australia has had cooler weather too but it has also had a lot of rain, especially in Queensland and New South Wales.

And if you feel bad that summer hasn't lived up to expectations of 30C days, our friends at Weatherzone in Sydney said the city had gone over the 30C mark only twice this summer.

So if you live in Waikato, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Marlborough, Canterbury or coastal Otago you can be assured you weren't the only ones missing out on the real heat. Without a doubt Central Otago - specifically Alexandra - has been the hottest place, dominating the spot for the national highs for the first two months.

And now autumn has arrived and I can see at least four deep lows which will affect New Zealand over the next 14 to 20 days, but we have some big highs in there too.

One thing about autumn is that the westerlies start to crank back up again - and sometimes that can produce 30C days.

But although many people feel ripped off about the lousy summer one big economic benefit was to our dairy industry.

Lack of droughts, plenty of rain and plenty of grass growth meant dairy farmers had one of their better summers in many years.

WeatherWatch.co.nz has run a number of polls on which is your favourite season - and every time autumn wins.

So, summer wasn't the best but a new season is now here and that means new weather. I'll leave you with this comment from WeatherWatch.co.nz reader Natasha De Thierry: "We complain when it's hot and complain when it's cold.

"Bring on autumn, bring on winter so I can hit the snow."