FEBRUARY WEATHER

Evening Star, Issue 20118, 7 March 1929, Page 16

FEBRUARY WEATHER

A DRY MONTH [Pun United Fiiess Association.] WELLINGTON, March 7. The following notes on the weather for February arc supplied by the director of the ’Government Meteorological Service (Dr Kidson) : February was a very dry month, the far southern portions of Otago, and Southland being the only part of the dominion to receive more tlmu the average rainfall. Numbers of places in Canterbury recorded no rain at all. South of Dunedin rain tell on a lair 11 umber of days, but elsewhere almost the whole of the mouth’s precipitation occurred during the first five days, and most of it on the Ist and 2nd. Meteorologically the mouth was a quiet one. There wiis a comparative absence ot wind, the prevailing direction being south-westerly. The thundery conditions of the previous months were not maintained. Thunder storms veie, however, reported from a number ot stations on the 3rd, and a hailstorm m the Oamani district did much damage to vineries at Kakanui. Ihe tempeialnres and sunshine were above normal. The continued dry weather caused the pastures to become very parched dnriim tho latter half of the month, and the milk yields have declined. Otherwise stock arc in good condition, and the dry spell was advantageous to the extent that it checked the rank growth of teed produced by the heavy rains of earlier months. The reports indicate fair to good yields from crops ot all sorts, and harvesting and haymaking have been carried out under lavourablc conditions. Strongly developed monsoonal conditions over Austialui which characterised January were again in evidence in February. ’I he pleasures were low tor most ol the time in Northern Australia. These low pressures were counter-balanced by a stationary high pressure system over the Tasman Sea, which was responsible tothe prevalence of the south-westerly winds over New Zealand and <ti.y weather which prevailed between the 6th and tho 23rd. The area ot low pressure extended eastward from tropical Australia during the third week ot February, and a cyclone developed between Fiji and the New Hebrides. The centre passed close to Kermadec islands on the 21st, but the effect Now Zealand weather was slight, the rain during tho first days of the month was due to a deep depression of a southern or westerly type which v as centred in the south Tasman Sea on the Ist. This was followed by a series of secondaries, of which the last crossed the donlinion on the sth. There were northerly gales in Cook Strait on the 2nd, and southerly gales roused the southern extremity of the South Island between the sth and the OnFrom the 23rd to the end of the month another series of'depressions ol a westerly type affected the South Island, but rain was confined practically to the West Coast and the far southern districts.