Bad winter for rain, sunshine

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 3

Bad winter for rain, sunshine

I Christchurch people have endured the second-worst ; winter since meteorological I recordings began in the city I in the 1860 s. This winter was wetter and bad less sunshine hours than the worst winter, recorded in 1939, but did not reach the same levels in other aspects. August ended a wet winter — last month’s rainfall was the second-highest, 366 mm compared with 408 mm in 1939.

Rain was recorded at the beginning and end of August, with a dr) spell in the middle. The total fall was 20 per cent above normal. Like July, cloudy conditions persisted throughout much of August, resulting in below-average sunshine and slightly higher temperatures.

This winter’s sunshine hours of 287 were the lowest recorded (315 hours in 1939). The highest temperature last month was 18deg on August 23 and the lowest was minus 2deg on the night of August 6.

The cloudy conditions had one advantage — there was a significant lack of frosts.