HIGH TEMPERATURES

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1935, Page 4

HIGH TEMPERATURES

WEATHER IN JANUARY

RAIN VERY BADLY NEEDED

In his survey-6f thV.weather experienced throughout. NewjZealand during January, the Director;of Meteorologi-cal-Services jCJDr.. E.-SKidson) says that the'present summer bids fair to be* the. hottest ever experienced in the Dommion.^ Though quite: soi much above noririal as December,'mean-tem-peratures in January were very high. Rainfall was again much below average over a large part of the country, and though many drier Januaries have been experienced, the continued rain, shortage, combined with the very high temperatures, has resulted in serious;conditions for the farmer in most of the more thickly-settled, districts:'■ . ■ ■ ■ • ' Pastures are, in general, burnt up and in many places there is a shortage of water. The milk yield has fallen off very greatly and stock are beginning faK. lose condition. Cereal croj>s will .be light and the grain in many cases:shrivelled. Many of the crops were late sown and the dry weather has been more severe on them than would otherwise have been the case.

The prospects for fodder crops are not good. Insect pests are rather troublesome in some, districts. Nelson, Westland, parts of Otago and Southland, and some of the high cptintry of the North Island are in much' better condition than the rest of the Dominion, but for the country as'?i whole the position is a serious one. and rain is very badly needed. i Heavy rains were recorded in the western half of the South Island. Parts' of eastern Otago and South Canterbury and of the high country in. Taranaki and Wellington also fared well Elsewhere the month was ■? a .very dry one. The position is most acute in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, an'd.jEast'Coast districts of the North Island; and most of Canterbury and Marlborough.

Temperatures were everywhere considerably above the normal..; In some parts-January^ 1887,-was^ hotter, but for, the Dominion, as a '-whole last month was probably the hottest January hitherto experienced. to the North .Island the departures from average.were everywhere large, but in the South-.^conditions were less uniform. There were not many high temperature records broken but it was almost continuously warm, and many readings above 90 degrees were registered. ;