Whanganui weather: April was mild, dry and sunny

Whanganui's April was mild and dry. Photo / Lewis Gardner

Housebound Whanganui people had a beautiful month of weather for their April lockdown.

It wasn't so great for farmers, with drought declared in March and the only rain of any significance falling between April 13 and 19.

At Whanganui Airport the month's total rainfall measured 22.4mm - which is about a quarter of the 81.4mm April average. The next rain worth talking about didn't happen until May 3.

Farmers were short of feed and desperately hoping for rain while the weather was warm enough to get grass growing before winter.

The average temperature across both day and night in Whanganui's April was 14.5C, MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said - which is very close to the usual.

Temperatures during the month ranged from highs of 15C to 22C, and lows of 7C to 13C.

The highest temperature, 23C, was recorded on April 12. The lowest was 6C, on April 4.

Winds were mainly west and northwest, with an 85km/h gust recorded on April 13 the strongest.

Whanganui wasn't alone in its dry conditions. Large parts of the North Island are in drought, Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said, especially the north and east. For some regions it is the worst on record, rivalling 2013.

The dry weather was caused by persistent high pressure systems in the north Tasman Sea suppressing rain-bearing systems arriving from the south.

Niwa has predicted northern and eastern regions of New Zealand will get drier under climate change, with the drying effect increased by the higher temperatures of global warming.