Best and worst summers
Posted by wwadmin on Wed, 11/01/2012 - 14:28
Filed in:
Although we are not halfway officially through the summer season, what are the best and worst summers you can remember?
There's been a lot of talk in recent times that the upper North Island has seenso much gloom and this is the worst beginning to the hottest season of the year for many years whereas on the flipside of that the southern part of the Mainland has seen its best in many years.
Are these two cases standing out in your mind or are there other summers that have lived long in the memory for whatever reason?
The 1982/83 summer was a very dry one in South Canterbury and North Otago and while there were endless days of sunshine for holidaymakers, farmers took a heavy toll. Another El Nino period was in the 97/98 summer season which greatly impacted again on rural areas in eastern districts and temperatures soared from Gisborne down to North Otago.
January 1984 and the rain tumbled down in Southland seeing damaging floods in Invercargill and ruined an ortherwise pleasant start to the summer.
Wellington 1976 saw heavy downpours of rain resulting in flooding and saw smiles being wiped off many faces in the Capital.That same year Auckland suffered through grey skies and humidty for an extended period which ruined many holidaymakers plans.
We'd love to get your thoughts on the most pleasant and perhaps the toughest summers that you've witnessed and why do they remain etched in the memory?
Let us know your thoughts by going to the comments section.
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Comments
I go by how much summer was
I go by how much summer was talked about to figure out which was the beast so Im going to say last summer here in Auckland was pretty impressive.
It was in the mid 20s by November and by December was more like southeast Queensland with high humidity and days nearing 30 degrees. But what made it so great was the amount of sun that came with the heat and when we would be hit by rain events it would be 2 days at the most then back to blazing sun and heat, so the rain events were actually something to look forward to.
The worst would be summer of 2004. I remember it being showery, windy and chilly for much of December with a high of 15 degrees on the 4th with hail! In saying that though it redeemed itself hugely by mid jan with consistent highs of 25 to 28 degrees then a scorching Feb with a high touching 30 on the 4th.
So even when summer starts poor here in Auckland it does usually to a complete 360 which gives me high hopes for summer 12.
Ben :)
Summers
I think 2010 was probably one of the best summers in the last decade - with a strong La Nina we actually had a taste of summer before xmas - from Oct through to Dec it was very dry - then some nice rain events in the weekends through to Feb.
In fact Auckland has probably had the best summers over the last 5 years in some time.
Bringing us to this year - a weak La Nina and this is more reminiscent of how summers were on occassional years from 2000 to 2005.Cloudy , quite humid(but not as bad as earlier in the decade),wet.
I'm on tank water so this year has been great - 100% full all the time!!However , the downside is a lot of powdery mildew, fungal diseases in the garden, but the citrus trees are loving it!
Malcolm Y , Waimauku , NW Auckland
Another was 1988-89 did well
Another was 1988-89 did well from national park south,the 1989 `fine and often calm weather extended well into winter I remember.
1982-83 was very showery with westerlies(especially dec 82 was cold) after a warmer november where I lived though it did have sunshine though it settled down from march 83 into a sunny winter though it was quite cold.
1996-97 (in Auckland) the temperatures wernt especially high,think 26c was the highest it obtained that summer on few rare days.
Quite a few cyclones hit the
Quite a few cyclones hit the upper new Zealand in the summer of 1996/1997 I remember.
worst summer I remember
This has to be the worst summer that we've had in recent years in Auckland.
I remember a few wet new years when I was a kid but we can't seem to get a break here. The only sunny day we've had since boxing day was last Friday! We've been really fortunate in Auckland as the last summers have been Indian Summers.
Miss the summer of 1994 in
Miss the summer of 1994 in Timaru. Bloody awesome and this one is slowly getting better.
Cheers
Rob
The best summer on record for
The best summer on record for most of NZ by conventional assessments - warmer, drier, sunnier - was that of 1934/35, especially in central New Zealand. It was easily the warmest on record for NZ overall, and also sunny and quite dry for most places. For many places the entire period November-April was very warm, sunny and fairly dry.
Very poor summers over a broad range of places included 1944/45 (particularly in the SI), 1952/53 and 1957/58. The last-named was particularly bad over most of the South Island apart from some of Nelson and Marlborough, and was part of a bad run of months which over much of the SI ran from October to May, apart from some relief in April. In 6 months Milford Sound had a year's worth of rainfall. The 1952/53 summer was cold and wet in Gisborne, Hawkes Bay and Canterbury, and cold almost everywhere, though quite fine in Central Otago, Southland and Westland.
To me 1977-78 was the best
To me 1977-78 was the best summer,was in Wanganui at the time and the dry sunny days went on and on from early december till mid april.
1977-78 ranks well for a lot
1977-78 ranks well for a lot of places, though it was the extended/late summer that was best (Jan-early Apr). Although Nov & Dec 1977 were sunny for most and in many cases quite dry as well, they were also cool.
For the Jan-Mar "season", I rate 1978 as the best one on record at Kelburn.
The weather over NZ became unsettled after 10 April, with some very heavy rainfalls later, especially in Canterbury:
http://www.nzweather.net/threads/historic-nz-weather-summary-april-1978....
Worst
Hi WW,
My worst was in London in 1976.Too hot and dry, it just wasn't British!
Loving the heat here in Otago.Great start to 2012.
Meg
1999 Summer feb had many days
1999 Summer feb had many days over 30 and one day it was 37! hope we have good rest ov summer down here in southland!
I can remember one start to
I can remember one start to summer Auckland and most of the country was being battered with Southwesterlies right up to the middle of December 2002, producing hail showers around the country. Was this another El Nino year?
Gore
The summer of '66 in Gore will be remembered for a foot of snow on Boxing Day!
Yes, I remember that, I was
Yes, I remember that, I was about 9 years old and we lived in Owaka. Dad took us up the Owaka Valley to show us the snow. He talked about a "white christmas" for many years to come.
Find that hard to beleve even
Find that hard to beleve even in winter let alone summer.
Hail??
This I actually true,
This I actually true, invercargill and inland parts of southland had 6 inches of snow on boxing day
best summer
I loved the summer of Nelson in 1981 as the days were not too hot and the lovely cooling seabreeze went on for motnhs. Those were the days :)
Jen