SOUTHERLY CHANGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 8

SOUTHERLY CHANGE

GENERAL RAIN LIKELY

Special forecast for Wellington:—

Moderate to strong northerly winds, with a change to strong southerlies probable tonight.

The weather will be cloudy to overcast and further rain is probable. Temperatures are likely to become cold.

The general forecast for the Dominion as a whole, issued at noon today for the ensuing twenty-four hours, is for northerly to north-westerly winds at first in most districts. Winds will be mainly moderate in force, but will be strong in some exposed positions. Strong southerlies, however, may be expected in the southern portion of the South Island, and these will extend over the remainder of the Dominion before tomorrow morning. The weather will be cloudy to overcast, and fairly general rain is probable. There will be snow on the South Island ranges, with hail on parts of the coast, and temperatures will become colder.

During the last few weeks depressions advancing towards New Zealand from Australia have kept to the south of the Dominion, resulting in a prolonged period of dry weather. At long last, however, a depression is now taking a more northerly course, the trough of lowest pressure at the present moment lying across Marlborough and Nelson, and barometers are now lower than they have been for several weeks. Although fair to fine weather has continued in eastern districts, good rains have fallen in Otago and Southland, with lighter falls in western districts as far north as Wanganui. It was still raining this morning in many places, and prospects are quite fair for wet weather becoming fairly general. Typical falls so far have been Jackson's Bay 155 points (on the top of 165 and 317 points on the two previous days), Puysegur Point 183 points, Queenstown 54 points, Greymouth 64 points, Alexandra 56 points, and Wellington 14 points. The southerly winds which were expected to advance over the Dominion yesterday did not eventuate. Winds remained in the north-west and, except for gales in the Cook Strait area during the night, were mostly moderate in force. A newsoutherly change, however, set in this morning in the south, and as this has been accompanied by a strong rise in barometric pressure it seems probable that southerlies will extend over the whole Dominion.

For the second successive day there was fog over the harbour in Auckland yesterday morning, but the remainder of the day was sunny and warm, the maximum and minimum temperatures being 71 and 58 degrees respectively. Light to moderate westerly winds prevailed, but the wind by this morning had gone round to the north and the sky was cloudy. Wellington's weather yesterday was partly cloudy, five hours of bright sunshine being recorded. A strong northwesterly wind prevailed and temperatures were quite mild, 65.1 degrees being the maximum and 58.6 degrees the minimum. Very welcome, albeit light, rain fell between midnight and 6 a.m., and misty rain fell at intervals this morning. The total fall at Kelburn up to 9 a.m. had been 14 points.

There was fog in parts of Christchurch up to about 10 a.m. yesterday, after which the weather was sunny and very warm with light and variable winds. The maximum and minimum temperatures were 73.5 and 52.3 degrees respectively. The weather this morning was cloudy but fine.

Dunedin had light . misty rain for most of the day, 45 points being recorded at the Heads. There was very little wind and temperatures were mild. The weather this morning was sunny.