AUGUST WEATHER

Hokitika Guardian, 8 September 1932, Page 6

AUGUST WEATHER

REPORT BY METEOROLOGIST.

rainfall below Average

WELLINGTON, September 6. The. Dominion 'Meteorologist '-reports as follows on the weather for August: General.—August was a cold month in .all parts of the Dominion, but in the latter h.ailf there were a number of"'maid days. 'Rainfall was still below j average over the greater .part of the Dominion, but the heavy rain from the 27th to .tile 29th caused a considerable excess in most of Taranaki and "in soutjhem".; lAfellington. ‘ Feed i,s rather •scarce, especially for cattle. The temperatures, however, were mitigated by the abundance of bright and following the rain towards the end of the. ; month, the .grass began to show r-igns pf growth in most districts. iSheep appear to be doing fairly well though there have been 'Some losses of lambs in parts during cold snaps. The snow of the early port of the month and the.floods of the latter end caused serious losses of stock' in the Wairarapa. . Rainfall!.—ln the South Island there were only scattered parts of Canterbury and Otago that had oh ore than 'the normal’, rainfall. In the North Island, i’ll addition to the areas mentioned, parts of the Auckland Peninsula had more than the average. In Hnwkes Bay and at many other places the month was a very dry one.

Temperatures. 'temperature -was everywhere from one and a half to three degrees, below normal. '''There were many severe' ‘'frost's 1 in ‘the first half of the month and from the 22nd to the 26th.

Sunshine. —Alii parts had more •sunshine .than usual. Neison. recorded 233.7 hours and Blenheim 218.1 hotire, while, the total of 208 hours at Waimate was very much above the average. ■ Treasure Systems—The. month began with a continuance of the same type of weather ns had ruled during July, Depressions were mainly of cyclonic type, with the centres pursuing tracks which kept to the; jnorth of New, Zealand. The most important of these cyclones* passed .Norfolk Island on thy 3rd, and ite passage coincided with that of* a •westerly depression • to ' the southward. From Norfolk Island if moved in a south-easterly direetion, be-r coining :; fleeper in the /process. The southerly 'winds in ‘thed'rear of this depression were very cO.ld- and strong and peculiarly persistent. On every day from .the afternoon of the 2nfl, when they first .reached the southernmost portion of the Dominion until' the even : mg of (the 6th, when they finally died' away, they brought hail, snow and winds of gale force'to many places At first the full severity, o£: t.*e- southerly was expe.’enced civ in the far ■south/ but gradually it spread north.imrdC*. The sth * “ -vrhs - A, J r ..piuii'eiuiaa , ly. bitten, day.,- Snow fell . down - to;--low levels over an area covering the greater part of the South Island and all the interior and high levels of the ■ North. 1 ' ”

On the 7th an anti-cyclone moved oil; to New Zealand, the highest pressures being experienced in the South Island/; This anti-cycione maintained fits position until the 13th when it -began--to ißO’fi away (eastward.’' Barometers were at times ' very high. Although cyclones still continued'to pass by to ttie northwards, bringing unsettled weather to varying proportions of the, North Island,: ,the weather was other-, wise very fine. Many severe frosts, wen'e -ieXperieiiced, especially . in- the South -Island. <■ 1 ‘ ' :

The anti-cyclone just mentioned 'was 'the precursor to a more' springlike, regime. Following it, depressions,, though well 'developed, were of the •'normal westerly 'type. ' From the 13th do the 15th, as th e first of these degressions approached, occfirred the first ’really mild weather ’for a long period. ■The first two days, .especially, were ’heautifullly fine and produced a most •grateful impression. on r the 15th "-the Northerly winds 1 and rain became 'widespread.; in -western and ’northern districts. * By : 'the' -time • the depression had parsed on 1 the night of ■the 16th almost general rains had been recorded, with heavy' ■'falls*-' in ‘many places; 'This depression had been ’fo 1 - lowed in Australia by 1 an extremely intense anti-cyclone, the barometer in ■Fouth Australia »approarchin<t 30.8 inches. New 'South WaW and Victoria'-guffer-ed: a very unusually coi'd .rspe 1 ] ■ -with much snow.' Those conditions, however. failed to -reach New ■Zealand; the southerly actually experienced being-of only slight severity.'' 1 7 v . 'Aiidther ' rather • vigorous -"Westerly depression passed during the 21&t to fcand: 'Kaiiiis' wore •'•'fdiiby extensive, especially itf ■western districts and the North Island .generally: In the southerly which followed this storm snowfalls were again fairly widespread. ■ The last storm -of the month was a double westerly depression, ‘the primary being followed by a secondary. It was not deep- as :it crossed the Tasman [Sea on the 26th and 27th, but on' the latter day a shkrp rise pressure and a change to southerly winds extended rapidly fi'om Tasmania across the south Tasman sea to southern New Zealand. By the morning of the 28th the southerly invasion had covered the South Island but appeared "to,-have expended itself. Over the North Island, however, the northerlies not only continued to blow, but freshened. Throughout -the 28th th e situation remained almost unchanged; light southerly winds prevailing' -to just beyond northerly current of warm air heavily charged with moisture. As a result torrential rail’s occurred in the southern portion of the Well'ington province and adjacent parts of C'oudy Bay and I| lo Marlborough Sounds where the northerly wind; were forced to m e