Today, NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) gave the summary of weather details in New Zealand for 2013.
It was the 3rd warmest year for the whole country since records began in 1909, with an average temperature of 13.4C degrees. It was also the warmest winter. The highest temperature was 35.1 recorded at Clyde (in Central Otago) on January 5th and Gisborne (East Coast, North Island) on January 9th and 10th. The lowest temperature was -12.1, recorded at Lake Tekapo (near Mt Cook) on June 28th.
The windiest place was on Mt Kaukau in Wellington when wind gusts were recorded at 202km per hour on June 20th. The place with the highest rainfall was at Cropp River on the West Coast of the South Island with 10,870mm of rain for the year. The driest town was Lauder in Central Otago with only 453mm of rain. The sunniest town was Whakatane with 2,792 sunshine hours during the year.
The main cities had very different weather. Auckland was the warmest, Dunedin the coldest; Wellington was the wettest and Christchurch was the driest; Tauranga was the sunniest.
Vocabulary
- records – scientists measured temperature and rainfall from 1909 and wrote these down
- wind gust – sudden, strong wind
Note the spelling for superlatives: e.g. dry, driest; sunny, sunniest; windy, windiest; wet, wettest
Listening
Listen for numbers e.g. temperatures, rainfall, sunshine hours – then check the text to see if you listened correctly.
Question
Some weather records began in 1909. Do you think that method of recording temperatures, rainfall, sunshine hours and wind gusts would be similar today?