WHERE IT RAINED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1937, Page 20

WHERE IT RAINED

AND WHERE IT DID

NOT

FALLS IN 1936

A DOMINION SUMMARY

Although we have it on the best authority that the rain falls impartially on the just and the unjust, yet in New Zealand it'falls very far from uniformly This is due to the topographical features of the country rather than to the unequal distribution of the just and the unjust. The range of the rainfall throughout the Dominion is, indeed remarkably wide, as is clearly shown by the reports from the 519 Government weather stations which are collected in the Gazette. These renorts are for last year, and it should be borne in mind that 1936 was a year when the rainfall was* in many places above the average, but for all that they clearly indicate that some parts of New Zealand (not only'the-no-licence districts) are very dry, while others are excessively wet. ■ «': ■■ The range of rainfall lor the' year extends from 266.27 inches at Milford Sound (over 22 feet of rain in the year, that is) to 12.59 inches at Alexandra in Central Otago (just one foot ' of rain). Very probably there were wetter places than Milford Sound, but if so they were places where no rain gauges are installed. Although Milford Sound easily tops the list, its rain fell on 195 days only, whereas at Invercargill the number of days with rain was 247. But Invercargill's total fall was only 48.69 inches, indicating a little rain often rather than heavy downpours like Milford's. Other wet places besides Minord Sound were:-Middle Hollyford-Homer Tunnel, 229.92 in on 224 days; The Hermitage, Mount Cook, 219.61 in on 184 days; Wataroa, Westland, 212.82 in on 165 days; Otira, Westland, 203 in on 194 days. Altogether 16 stations In the North Island and 18 in the South Island had lOOm of rain or over, and 10 and 16 respectively had rain on 200 days or more. ■ . The places with the highest rainfall are found in the South Island, the North Island having no rain-catching mountains e,qual to the Southern Alps. In the North Island the maximum fall was 171.77 inches, at the upper dam at the Mangahab electric power station. The gauge there, remarks a footnote, was blown over one day in February, so possibly the rainfall was even greater than that actually recorded. Orongorongo comes next with 147.44 inches, which indicates how wisely the sites, of hydro-electric stations have been selected as regards rainfall. Taranaki was a' well-watered district, several stations having 100 inches or thereabouts WHERE THE RAIN IS MGHT. The east coasts of both islands are conspicuous in the return as places where the rainfall is low. But the. palm for dryness goes to Central Otago, where four stations record the year's fall as being under 15 inches. Some spots in North Otago, too, were very dry. The driest spot in the North Island was the Portland Island Lighthouse, where 29.86 inches of rain were recorded, but _ Martinboroughy and several Hawke's Bay stations were nearly as dry. FEBRUARY'S DELUGE. The falls' for the year in the four centres were:—Auckland, 52.54ih on" 184 days; Wellington, 56.8 in on 173 days; Chrislchurch, 36.14 in on 146 days; Dunedin, 48.06 in on 163 days. Wellington's rainfall last year was well in excess of the average. It usually has rather less rain in a year than Auckland. Wellington's wettest day during the year was February 1, when 2.67 inches were recorded. That date was a remarkably wet one for most of the North Island, ( and the storm that then raged has not yet been forgotten. On that date fell the year's record rainfalls-rlS^Sin at Puhipuhi Plantation '(North. Auckland). 12.1 in at Waihi, 11.84 in at Russell, and 11.41 in at Whangarei. In the South Island, Wataroa, Westland, had a fall of 12.2 in on March 20, - and Akaroa and The Hermitage suffered local cloudbursts of 11.73 in and 11.8 in on February 20 and April 21 respectively.