FEBRUARY RAINS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20490, 8 March 1932, Page 9

FEBRUARY RAINS.

WHOLE COUNTRY BENEFITS RECORD 1 AMOUNT OP CLOUP; (press association telegram.) WELLINGTON, March 7. The-weather in February was remarkable for the complete break is the drought which prevailed in . many, districts during the preceding months. At the end of the first week, owing to the prolonged period of deficient rainfall, the situation was critical' in'parts of Hawke's Bay, Poverty Bay, and Canterbury, and only less serious in the Wairarapa,Manawatu, and Marlborough dis- | tricts, but the Dominion once more showed the reliability of its climate, when during' the following fortnight two spells of heavy rain occurred. In .the- first the airea principally, affected was in the eastern portion of the North Island from Cook Strait to East, Cape, where there had been a drought. In that area it was fully relieved, the fails being particularly heavy from Hawke's Bay northwards. The second rainy spell was between February 17th and 22nd. On this occasion the whole country benefited, heavy falls being practically universal. The drought was now broken in Canterbury, Marlborough, and Manawatu, and the whole aspect of the season changed. The amount of rain for the Dominion as a whole was very heavy and must Ave approximated fifty per cent, above the average. In eastern districts between Oamaru and Timaru, from Wellington to East Cape, and about Auckland and Coromandel Peninsula, many stations recorded more than double the average for February and some three or four times that amount. - Nevertheless, parts of Auckland" Peninsula, most of Taranaki, parts of Southland, and, of the interior of Otago had less than .normal. - In most places temperatures were below normal for February, but in the interior departures vrese seldom marked and some inland parts of the North Island were warmer than usual. The amount of bright sunshine was much below the average; indeed, in many places it was the cloudiest February on record, .'