CLIMATOLOGICAL TABLE—Summary of the Records of Temperature, Rainfall, and Sunshine for August 1975—continued
LATE RETURNS AND CORRECTIONS—continued

The “normal” refers to the present site of the instruments.

Standard periods for normals are:—Temperature 1941–70, Rainfall 1941–70, Sunshine 1941–70.

No normals are available for stations with only short records.

*Indicates that the sunshine recorder is not located at the station but is in the near vicinity.

A rain day is a day with rainfall equal to or greater than 0.1 mm.

Where the extremes of temperature and rainfall have occurred more than once during the month, the date of the first occurrence is given.

NOTES ON THE WEATHER FOR AUGUST 1975

General—August was a mild month, and in the South Island it was unusually cloudy and wet. Some farmers found the weather too wet, and conditions were at times unfavourable for lambing.

Exceptionally strong north-westerly winds which had commenced in Southland and parts of Otago on 31 July, spread into other eastern districts as far north as Wairarapa on 1 August. Instrumental observations at Timaru Aerodrome, Christchurch Airport, Kaikoura Peninsula, and the northern end of Lake Wairarapa all indicated winds of hurricane force, that is, averaging at least 64 knots over a period of 10 minutes. Widespread damage was reported, including devastation of large areas of forest, houses de-roofed, buildings demolished, and seven power pylons blown down near the upper Selwyn River in Canterbury. Unusually high gusts included 105 knots on Kaikoura Peninsula, 93 knots at Christ-church Airport, and 92 knots at Eyrewell Forest, north-west of Christchurch.

Small local tornadoes caused some damage at Governors Bay (Lyttelton) on the 1st and at Kaitaia on the 13th.

Rainfall—Rainfall was above normal over nearly all the South Island and also over most of the North Island west of the ranges and south of Hamilton and Tauranga. It was more than double the normal value over most of Canterbury and parts of Otago, Nelson, and Manawatu.

2-day rainfalls of 130–200 mm on the 19th and 20th around Lyttelton and Banks Peninsula caused considerable flooding, especially of the Heathcote River in Christchurch.

Temperatures—Mean temperatures were mainly above normal by up to 1°C. Snow fell to low levels in parts of the South Island on the 1st and 28th, and on the high country of both islands on the 7th and 8th.

Sunshine—Sunshine was below normal by 40–70 hours except east of the ranges in the North Island, where it was mainly close to normal. Dunedin’s 68 hours, Queenstown’s 71 hours, and Grey-mouth’s 63 hours were all record low totals for August.

Weather Sequence—At the beginning of August a very deep depression was passing to the south of the country and north-westerly winds were exceptionally strong in eastern districts as far north as Wairarapa, reaching hurricane force in many places and causing considerable damage and devastation to forests. A trough of low pressure which crossed the country at the same time spread some rain to most districts, but the falls were light in the east. Temperatures were warm. From the 2nd to the 4th an anticyclone moved on to the North Island and away to the east, while pressures remained low to the south of the country. Rain was reported on the West Coast. During the next 2 days a deep depression passed to the south-west and the associated trough of low pressure crossed the South Island, causing heavier falls on the West Coast and light rain in many other districts. Temperatures were very warm in