SEVEN DAYS OF RAIN

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30179, 10 July 1963, Page 14

SEVEN DAYS OF RAIN

Five Hours Of Sunshine

.Rain has fallen in CXiristcnurch for seven days in succession, and by 6 p.m. yesterday it amounted to 1.83 inches. A spokesman for the weather office at Harewood said that temperatures had not been very low, but it was unusual for Christchurch to go for such a long time without sunshine. A cold front which moved up the South Island and passed over Canterbury early yesterday morning brought with it cold temperatures, rain, and in some places, snow. Snow fell in Otago and Southland yesterday, and both Dunedin and Invercargill reported considerable falls. No snow was reported to have fallen on the lower country of Canterbury. In Christchurch at midday yesterday the temperature was 43 degrees with a steady drop to 40 degrees at 3 p.m. At 6 p.m. it was 38 degrees. Hie temperature in Dunedin at midday yesterday dropped to 34 degrees, two degrees above freezing, but by 3 p.m. it bad risen to 41 degrees. One consolation in the rainy days is that the number of frosts has been kept down. Only one or two very light frosts have been registered this month.

The average sunshine in Christchurch during July is 126 hours, and the lowest figure recorded is 87 hours, in 1944. This month Christchurch has had five hours of sunshine. The ground is now becoming waterlogged, mainly because of lack of evaporation rather than because of heavy rain. The rain has been persistent and light, rather than heavy.