THE DRY SPELL

Taupo Times, Volume III, Issue 108, 19 February 1954, Page 1

THE DRY SPELL

THREE MONTHS RAINFALL In the "Times" of February 5, a report on the rainfall of the three months ended January 31, 1954, compared with the same period ended January 31, 1953, contained an error, due to rainfall for December 1952 being given incorrectly as 4.64 inches. In fact, that was the rainfall for December 1951, the rainfall for December 1952 having been 9.65 inches. The rainfall for the three months ended January 31, 1954, in Taupo was 7.175. For the same three months ended January 31, 1953, the rainfall was 21.75 inches. Figures supplied to us by Messrs. Afforestation Pty., Ltd., from, their meteorological station at the Rotokawa Plantations, ten miles north of Taupo, show rainfall figures of 7.43 inches for the three months to January 31, 1954, and of 18.43 inches for the three months to January 31, 1953. An interesting point in connection with rainfall in the vicinity of Taupo, according to publications of the N.Z. Meteorological Service, is that an area including Taupo itself and extending about 25 miles northeast, and about 5 miles in width, lies in a "rain shadow." In this area rainfall averages 45 inches per annum, but immediately oqtside it the average fall is about fifty per cent greater.