Last month was the coldest October in 64 years, with all-time record low temperatures in many areas.
The month had exceptionally late snowfalls and record low October temperatures were recorded on October 4 and 5 in most North Island locations, and on October 9 at many South Island sites.
Rainfall was well above normal rainfall in the east of the North Island, as well as in Wellington, Marlborough and parts of Canterbury. It was very dry on the West Coast of the South Island.
The month was extremely sunny on the West Coast of the South Island.
Record or near-record low October temperatures were experienced in many locations, with temperatures more than 2.0 degrees Celsius below average throughout eastern and alpine areas of the South Island, as well as in the lower half of the North Island.
Temperatures were below average – between 0.5 degrees and 1.2 degrees below average – elsewhere.
Overall for New Zealand, it was the coldest October in the 64 years since 1945, with a national average temperature of 10.6 degrees – 1.4 degrees below the long-term October average.
Such a cold October has occurred only four times in the past 100 years.
Well above normal October rainfall – above 150 percent of normal – was experienced across the east coast of the North Island, as well as Wellington, Marlborough and Canterbury, north of about Ashburton. Rainfall was near-record – and more than 200 percent of normal – in parts of Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and the Tararua district.
Unseasonable snowfalls characterised October 2009. An exceptionally heavy snow on October 4 and 5 in the Hawkes Bay and Central North Island was estimated to be the worst in October since 1967, stranding hundreds of travellers, closing roads, and resulting in heavy lambing losses.
Many locations in the North Island experienced record low October temperatures on October 5. Snowfall was also observed in Taranaki, Waikato and Rotorua on October 6. It was the first time it snowed in about 30 years around Rotorua.
3 responses so far ↓
wil // November 11, 2009 at 3:06 am
Local news actually had spot about inaccuracies and faulty temperature reportings around Georgia.
And after detailing everything that is wrong–the trusted weather source goes on by saying despite all that–how accurate it all is?
Wtf?
pjwalker911 // November 11, 2009 at 4:59 am
I notice how certain media outlets continuously claim “record breaking heat predicted” almost every single day of the year, but when the real temperatures are tallied up at the end of the month, we always see that it was unusually cold. This applies to both northern and southern hemispheres. So there is a lot of deliberate misinformation on how “hot” it is, when in fact the opposite is true. The Earth is cooling. Of course, when they are forced to finally admit it is cooling (and a few are now admitting it’s cooling for the next 30 years and that it’s gonna be bad for the warming fear-mongering business haha!), they will just change tactics and claim that humans are cooling the planet and we all need to give up our rights to stop global cooling. Just watch these climate slimebags. They know it is cooling of course, so a few years ago they stopped calling it “global warming” and started calling it “climate change”, you know, like the weather. Wait long enough and watch it change. So no matter how cold or hot it is, they will always use it as an excuse for global government, global taxation and punitive carbon-rationing among other nefarious agendas. Pathological liars all.
Last month the coldest October for 64 years in New Zealand | Conspiratorium 101 // November 11, 2009 at 8:09 am
[...] Last month the coldest October for 64 years in New ZealandSource: Aftermath News [...]