NZ Climate Science Coalition

Can readers & Kiwis report in on New Zealand heatwave

25 Comments

I see this headline – Warnings as NZ bakes in 40C weather – I am worried if Kiwis are going to be safe over there. You can check NZ Towns & Cities link. First to find a 40 degrees wins a bottle of cleanskin ALDI dry red or white.

Added on 29th. From NZ Herald www.

25 thoughts on “Can readers & Kiwis report in on New Zealand heatwave”

  1. Warwick,

    In Canterbury we have had a fairly hot summer over here. A lot of low 30C days.
    Canterbury does get the hotter summers in NZ because of the NW storms hitting the alps, dropping their water and warming the air from the heat of the condensation. But I am not aware of any high 30’s temps.
    Apparently in 1973 there was a record high in Rangiora of 42C but that’s the only claim to 40 degree temps I have heard.

    Cheers

    Roger

  3. I was in Christchurch that day in 73 – it was sweltering hot especially for NZ. I think it was about 40°C over a lot of the Canterbury Plains that day. As well as that high temperature, the SW arrived that day, and the temperature dropped about 25° in a matter of hours.

  4. Warwick,

    I have to say there seems to be very little or no official archived or current weather data currently available online now.
    This is not only interesting but also suspicious. Is no access to these sorts of archive for the public mean that we are being conditioned for some propaganda which will be difficult to refute?

    However there is some information at this site which appears parochial to Dunedin and surrounds.

    Cheers

    Roger

  6. MetService has Dunedin max 25 today
    www.metservice.com/towns-cities/dunedin

    32 on 16th.
    Roger – I agree in spades with your “I have to say there seems to be very little or no official archived or current weather data currently available online now.”
    NZ taxpayers would prob be better off contracting weather www out to the BoM where it least you can find relevant stuff.

  7. Wanaka evidently was the hottest place today. 35.5°C. Hottest Jan since records began there in 1993, However, since then, the town has grown substantially so don’t know what UHI would be. The lakes are also low and the ground dry because of a drought (yes we have them here but they are often only a few months long) so that would have given less water to evaporate and cool things down. All of Central Otago was hot but it does get like that this time of year if there are no clouds or wind.

  8. “And WeatherWatch head analyst Philip Duncan says some areas of Central Otago could actually hit 40C early next week. Those taking shelter in the shade could expect temperatatures in the high 30S.” I just had a look at the extended forecast here : www.timeanddate.com/weather/@7910035/ext I’m not sure where the 40C temps came from.

  9. I was doing some work at the Bluff smelter in December 1994. Some railway lines near Invercargill buckled. I think the temperature was 29 degrees. David Brewer may also recall that one.

  10. It seems the South Is has been experiencing the highest temperatures. Here in Auckland it isn’t too bad, there has always been breezes, close to the sea so sea breezes keep the temps not too high. Bad on days when humidity is high though. Heard on last evenings news that a mini-typhoon is headed our way, set to dump a downpour. So far we got only one mild thunder-clap. Weather can vary in different parts of Aucks, caused by micro climate due in part to the volcanic cones.

  13. To the disappointment of the newspapers, the Met service was right and temperatures were cooler than yesterday in Central Otago.

  14. Friday 26th NIWA said – “..Niwa saying 40 degrees Celsius is possible on Tuesday.” We will keep a watch.
    www.stuff.co.nz/national/100904055/temperatures-could-hit-40-degrees

    The 35° heat in Wanaka yesterday might have been influenced by the same system that gave Melbourne the 2 40deg days on 18th-19th. That pushed to NE and gave Richmond(West Sydney) the 4 scorchers
    19Fr 40.2
    20Sa 39.6
    21Su 39.1
    22Mo 42.0
    Is ~5-10 days on scale for air masses to muddle across the ditch?

    COLA is reporting rain for you next Fri 2 Feb
    Sorry – had to add this – the news about your PM is so far into the paranormal beyond fake.

    First bloke has a big mouth – “hits jackpot”
    Cam Slater nails it at Whaleoil – I snorted coke out my nose when I read this

  15. Wazz
    Central Otago is hot because of the big high over the whole country. It is different to the one over SE Australia. Another consequence is our 450MW installed capacity of wind is only generating 20MW so they are burning a lot of coal.
    If the weather is the big highs and nor westerers, then there is that lag between West Island and us. Much of our stuff comes from west or south west so more the bottom of Tasmania. The southerlies come straight up from Antarctica and chill the whole country.
    The forecasts here have the rain arriving a day earlier than yours do
    www.metvuw.co.nz/forecast/forecast.php?type=rain&region=nz&noofdays=7

  17. I see now COLA has that rain arriving Thursday too. I suppose the various forecast groups all work off the same observations & upper air data. I assume that details of their models differ.
    I have over years found the COLA maps to be realistic here in Oz.

  18. Re your link above quoting Clarke Gayford utterances. I see this quote: “He said they had escaped to Australia for a week of relative anonymity. But the visit saw the couple met by an official limo and diplomatic detail which delivered them to their first destination – a budget car rental office to pick up one of its lowest cost vehicles.” Quite apart from anybody with common sense would have worked out that “anonymity” is generally not possible for PM’s. Are there some protocols Australia would automatically follow with visiting PM’s and heads of state etc? I mean we do not want any harm coming to them here. The thought of them tootling off in some local version of RentaWreck.

  19. Can we all agree 100% on this: are we talking about temperatures, such as NIWA’s 40oC, in full sun or in the shade? The MSM appears to be fudging from one to t’other.

  21. Now the newspapers are almost pleading for the temperature to reach 40°
    www.stuff.co.nz/national/100923087/live-just-how-hot-is-it-going-to-get
    They list the 14 hottest days in January topped by a 40° in Timaru over 100 years ago. There are only two temperatures in that list from this century – not good support for weather getting warmer and more extreme. And they won’t want to talk about the heat in three days time when snow fall in the Alps.

  22. So now that many NZ places have had rain from cyclone Fehi I expect to see headlines such as “farmers dancing in Hamilton main street after rain adds millions to their incomes”.
    And will there be any mea culpas from the geniuses who predicted 40 degrees and nowhere got near.

  23. Totally O/T.
    Recently PM Jacinta was yapping about her forthcoming birth.
    Unfortunately, the Kiwi accent kicked in and it sounded as though she said, “I will have sex days off and then I’ll be back on dick.”

  25. I see the tentacles of TC Gita reaching the tip of Northland now. Should help fix that Northland drought.

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