April
Science Centres: Climate
A monthly newsletter from the National Climate Centre.
Current climate – March 2009
Rainfall: Very low March rainfalls were recorded in parts of Wairarapa, Marlborough, north Canterbury, and North and Central Otago. It was also drier than normal in most other areas except for wet spots in western Bay of Plenty and eastern Otago.
Soil moisture: Generally low rainfalls led to falling residual soil moisture by the end of March. Some areas were comparably dry to the drought-like conditions of the same time last year.
Air temperatures: Below average over most of the country during March. Temperatures in the North Island and northern half of the South Island were more than 0.5 °C lower than normal in most places. The national average temperature of 15.1 °C was 0.6 °C below the long-term average for March.
Sunshine: Record hours of bright sunshine for March were recorded in Northland, Auckland, King Country, and the central South Island. It was also sunnier than normal in most other places.
The month was dominated by anticyclonic conditions with relatively dry and cool south to southwesterly air flows over New Zealand.
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