✨ Meteorological Summary
1068
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 30
METEOROLOGICAL SUMMARY FOR MARCH, 1906.
THE total rainfall for the month of March was generally below the average, and the weather changeable, but on the whole more chilly and duller than usually experienced in mid-autumn in New Zealand. The mean monthly temperatures at Wellington, Auckland, and Dunedin are about the lowest ever recorded at those cities for the month of March in the previous forty-three years, and these following the low-temperature records of February already constitute a remarkably cold autumn season for this year. The conditions, however, were not so severe as bare reports would lead strangers unacquainted with our climate to imagine. Taking Wellington as an example, 57 deg. F., the mean monthly temperature for March last, which is the lowest on record, is only 3·5 deg. below the mean for the month. During the past month the highest temperature at Wellington was 71·8 deg., and the lowest 40 deg., with a mean daily range of 12·2 deg. Our climate owes its equability to the position and extent of the Islands of New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean, and the variations between the seasons in different years mainly point to larger terrestrial changes, possibly cycles, which are as yet imperfectly understood.
The month was ushered in with fine and pleasant weather, but on the 4th somewhat sultry and humid conditions and north-easterly winds heralded the approach of an area of low barometric pressure from the north. This on the 6th and 7th brought abundant rains in all parts of the North Island, excepting Taranaki. The same disturbance also accounted for rains in the South Island. It was followed by remarkably cold south-westerly winds, which in both Islands produced snow on the mountains and frosts in the valleys.
From the 7th to the 14th the skies were changeable, especially in the south. From the 14th to the 21st, although some heavy showers fell in places mostly inland, the weather was generally calm and fine, with hot days and cold nights. On the 21st an area of barometric low pressure, as a storm of great intensity was approaching from the tropics. Besides the usual extension, which diminishes the force of such storms in these latitudes, it appears to have met with low pressures from the west, which, as two negatives make a positive, further assisted in neutralising its intensity on arrival. General rains followed, and the weather was very unsettled until the end of the month. Some very wintry weather was experienced in various parts on the 26th, 27th, and 28th. The frost on the morning of the 27th was severe in places.
The rainfall was very light in Central Otago, and on the west coast of the South Island the rainfall was also very much below the average of the month for those parts.
D. C. BATES.
Meteorological Office, Wellington,
17th April, 1906.
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NZ Gazette 1906, No 30
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New Zealand Meteorological Summary for March 1906
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🎓 Education, Culture & Science17 April 1906
Meteorology, Weather Observations, Rainfall, Temperature, Climate, March 1906, North Island, South Island, Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin
- D. C. Bates