Southerly Turn Ends Warm Spell

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 1

Southerly Turn Ends Warm Spell

Icy, southerly squalls lashed Christchurch, Banks Peninsula and parts of Canterbury yesterday, bringing a sharp end to the district’s Baby Spring of the last few days.

Unseasonably warm weather s bathed the city and rural t areas during the week-end, 1 reaching a maximum of 65.4 deg. at Christchurch' International Airport on Sun- < day. Temperatures fell to I the mid-50s on Monday, and < yesterday the maximum I dropped as low as 46deg. 1 Snow was down to 1600 ft i on Banks Peninsula, and < there was a jin cover at the 1 top of th? Lewis Pass. f However, coastal areas suffered more from the cold 1 southerly airstream than dis- I tricts further inland. Christchurch was lashed by heavy ! showers for most of the day, bringing almost lin of rain 1 in the 38 hours to 11 pun. last evening. Surface Flooding Rain eased later in the day, but left surface flooding in some parts of the city. Only one hour and a half of sunshine was recorded by the Meteorological Service at Harewood. Snow fell on Banks Peninsula during much of the day, reaching at times as low as the Hilltop Hotel. However, most of the low-lying snow was later dispersed by heavy

showers of hail and sleet; and the snow-line remained about 1600 ft. In country areas the rain was welcomed by farmers, whose land has not yet fully recovered from the serious drought that gripped Canterbury earlier this year. Falls have not been heavy enough, nor have they lasted long enough, fully to dampen the ground; and much of the subsoil is still dry. The cold spell is not expected to have much effect on lambing. In the Waipara district, 59 points of rain fell in the 32 hours to 8 p.m. yesterday, driven by cold, blustery southerly winds. Showers fell throughout the day in Oxford. The day was very cold in , the Parnassus area, about Jin i of rain falling yesterday and ■ on Monday night Snow was . down to about 2000 ft. ■ Weather in the Loburn, Oxt ford, and Arthur’s Pass areas. however, was generally fine. - The cold weather is ex- , pected to continue in all- diss tricts for the next two days, , but without rain. Skies should j ; remain overcast, according to r the Meteorological Service.