Taupō weather report: First week of autumn a wet one

Photo / NZME

Last week's weather highlights. Photo / Supplied

Weather in Taupō for the penultimate week of March and the first month of autumn can only be described with one word: Wet.

It was a week in which the long dry spell of summer was well and truly broken and where the rainfall exceeded one-and-a-half times the average for the month.

The 24-hour fall of 69.5mm on March 23 was close to but did not set a record fall for 24 hours for any March month. That happened twice in March 2011 when a 24-hour fall of 72mm was recorded on March 5 that year and 73mm fell on March 26.

The last-mentioned figure is the record fall for 24 hours in any March month for Taupō.

Last week, temperatures were noticeably cooler as we moved deeper into autumn and the days had that autumnal feeling. In addition, it was windier than it has been for some time, with a peak wind gust of 54km/h recorded at the Taupō Airport on March 24 and another the next day of 56km/h. This wind is not unusual around the autumn equinox.

Last week's unsettled weather was brought about by a slow-moving low-pressure system, that originated in the tropics to the north, and became slow-moving and complex over the north of the North Island as it crossed from the Tasman Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

The worst affected area by this system was Gisborne/Hawkes's Bay.