Ranging from the hottest to the coldest, the wettest to the driest, the windiest to the sunniest, the following are records that stand through to the present day…

Hottest

Feb 7 1973

Rangiora in Canterbury and Jordan in Marlborough hit the record national high of 42.4 degrees . On the same day, Ruatoria had the North Islands hottest temperature of 39.2 degrees.

Coldest

July 3 1995

Ophir in Central Otago recorded the national low of -21.6 degrees. 

Wettest

January 1994

Over a 24 hour period , Colliers Creek ( in the South Island West Coast region) had a deluge of 682mm ( more than what Christchurch usually receives in a calendar year!)

Driest

1963-64

Over a 12 month period, Alexandra recorded just 167mm during a very long dry spell.

Windiest

April 1970

Mt John Observatory is home to New Zealand’s highest recorded wind gust of 250kph. 

Sunniest

1931

Nelson had the sunniest year on record for the country of 2711 hours. Napier has the honour of taking the North Islands highest sunshine tally, which was just last decade during 1994, at 2588 hours.

Interesting to note, that all records outlined above have been recorded in the South Island.