WEATHER REPORT

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXV, Issue 12298, 12 April 1937, Page 3

WEATHER REPORT

A SUNLESS MARCH The Dominion Meteorologist makes the following notes on the weather for the month or March: General. —The cold conditions of the previous months were continued through flie first half of March but the second half was warm. Though the rainfall was below normal in most 1 places, cloudy and humid conditions prevailed and few places felt any shortage. Stock are reported to be in good condition and there is abundance of pasture. Lambs are fattening, on the whole, rather better than , earlier in the season, though the feed ' is generally still rather soft. Harvesting was done in difficult circumstances and some of the wheat was again damp. The luck of dry, sunny weather has adversely affected the production of grass seed and some other crops. AVhite butterflies were rather numerous and destructive. Rainfall. —In the North Island, North Auckland, the northern Waikato and the Bay of Plenty areas had considerably more than the average rainfall, but over the remainder only about half of it was recorded. In the South Island, there was an excess in North Canterbury, southern Otago and Southland and at a few places in Westland, hut a defect elsewhere South Canterbury, especially, had much lo:s than the average. Temperature.—Mean temperatures differed little from the normal for 'March, the warm weather in the lat'ter half of the month compensating for the cold of the first half. Between the 170 th and 13th some rather sharp frosts were recorded and some damage was done to tender plants. Sunday, the 28th was, at many places the warmest day of the season, over 80 deg. being recorded at some North Island stations. bxuiß)uue.—olightly more than the average amount ot ongul surname was recorded in tue far Nortu, at Auckianu, and the iar south at Invercargill, but over most of me country mcae was a uencit or aoout so to ■±o nours. seldom, if. ever, muceu, nas so sunless a mania ueen experienced. .treasure System.—The only very pronounced storm occurring in tne iNew Zealand area during tue monlli was tnat which developed as a tropical cyclone in the New Hebrides region at the end of the third week. Moving almost due south, the storm passeu JNorroiii rslanu uunng me night of the 25th to 2 6th. It was then rather violent and extensive, and heavy ram accompanied by strong gales, which at times reached ’hurricane force, were experienced at Norfolk Island. The most unusual procedure is for these storms to uegxu lO lane a more easieny course from this sthge onwards.. In this particular case, however, a rather deep westerly depression developed at the critical time over sotith-easiem Australia; and the cyclone was drawn into its circulation. It continued to move southwards keeping about 400 111110 s oit tiio new z<euitUiU coast aiui on the 27tii began to fill up. Northeasterly gales had been caused by it in the northern'part of the Auckland Peninsula, but no strong winds elsewhere. On the 28th, merging with the oncoming westerly depression, it reinforced the latter, causing a stormy day with north-westerly gales in many places about and south of Cook Strait. On the next day it had disappeared. During its rather varied History it brought heavy rain to most of the country. The Easter holidays were spoilt by it in much of the Auckland Province. In the earlier part of the month, such rain as occurred was associated principally with rather indefinite westerly depressions of no great Intensity. Such was the case with rain during the first four days, which was'heavy in many place. From the Bth to 13th, pressure continued high over southeastern Australia and low to the east of New Zealand. South-westerly winds and cold, showery weather prevailed over the Dominion. It was during this period that frosts were experienced, and snowfalls occurred on the mountains. These were unusually heavy for the time of year, particularly on Mt. Egmont. From the 19th to 22nd, a series of shallow westerly depressions were responsible for some heavy rains in the south-western and southern parts of the Soutn Island.