MARCH WEATHER

Evening Star, Issue 22618, 9 April 1937, Page 13

MARCH WEATHER

CLOUDY, HUMID, CONDITIONS | [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, April 8. : This following report on the .weather during March has been prepared by the Dominion Meteorologist (Dr L. Aiason): — The cold conditions of the previous mouths were continued through the first half of March, but the second haltwas warm. Though the rainfall was below normal in most places,' cloudy and humid conditions prevailed, and few places felt any shortage. Stock are reported to be in good condition, and there is abundance of pasture; Lambs are fattening oh the whole, rather bet-, ter than earlier in the season,; though the feed is generally still rather sort. 1 Harvesting was done in difficult circumstance's. and some of the wheat was again damp. The lack of dry, sunny weather has adversely affected the production of grass seed and some other crops. White butterflies were rather numerous and destructive. ■ In the North Island, North Auck* land, the Northern Waikato, and the Bay of Plenty areas had considerably more than the average rainfall, but over the remainder only ..about half of it was recorded, in the South Island there was an excess in North Canterbury, Southern Otago, and' Southland, and at a few places in Westland, but a deficit elsewhere. South Canterbury especially had much less than the averago. Mean temperatures differed little from the normal for March,' the warm weather in the later half of the month compensating for the cold of the first half. Between the 10th and 13th some rather sharp frosts were recorded, and some damage was done to tender plants. Sunday, the 28th, was at many place's the warmest day of the season, over SOdeg being recorded at some North Island stations. Slightly more than the average amount of bright sunshine was recordedin the far north, at Auckland, and this far south, at Invercargill, but over most-of the country there-was''n deficit of about 20 to 40 hours. Seldom if ever, indeed, has so sunless & Match been experienced. : PRESSURE SYSTEMS. The only very pronounced storm occurring in tho New Zealand area dinting the month was that which developed as a tropical cyclone in the. New Hebrides region at the end of the thirdweek. Moving almost due south, .the storm passed Norfolk Island during; the night of the 25th to 26th, _ It was then rather violent and extensive, and heavy rain, accompanied by strong gales, which at times reached humcane force, were experienced at Nor-, folk Island. The most usual procedure is for these storms to begin to take a more easterly course from this stage onward. In this particular case, however, a rather deep westerly depression developed, at the critical time over South-eastern Australia, and the cyclone was drawn into its circulation. It continued to move southwards, keeping about 400 miles off the New Zealand coast, and on the 27th began to fill up. North-easterly gales had been caused by it in the northern part of the Auckland Peninsula, but no strong windselsewhere. .On the 28th, merging with the oncoming westerly depression, it reinforced tho latter, causing a stormy day, with north-westerly gales in many places about and south of Cook Strait. On the next day it had disappeared. During its rather varied history it brought heaw rain to most of the country. The Easter holidays were spoilt by it in much of the Auckland province. In the earlier part of the month such rain as occurred was associated principally with rather indefinite westerly depressions of no great intensity. Such was tho case with rain during the first four days, which was heavy in many places. From the Bth to 13th pressure continued high over Southeastern Australia and low to tho east of New Zealand. South-westerly winds and cold, showery weather prevailed over the Dominion. It was during this period that frosts were experienced and snowfalls occurred on the mountains. These were unusually heavy for tho time of year, particularly on Mount Egmont. From the 19th to 22nd a, series of shallow westerly depressions was responsible for some heavy rains in the south-western and southern parts of tho South Island.