METEOROLOGICAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 February 1935, Page 8

METEOROLOGICAL

PHASES OF THE MOON.

FEBRUARY, 1935.

THE SUN The sun sets to-day at 7.54 p.m.; rises to-morrow at 5.32 a.m. WEATHER REPORT Wind, east; barometer, 29.99; thermometer, 73; tides, good; bar, moderate swell; river, normal; sky, blue. AT OTHER CENTRES.

WEATHER FORECAST. General inference: —There is little change in the pressure distribution, but a slight rise in the north, and a slight fall elsewhere,, have produced rather more uniform conditions. Forecast: —Light to moderate winds, with northerlies prevailing. Weather, fine and warm. Seas, smooth to moderate. .JANUARY WEATHER. General: —The present summer bids fair to be the hottest ever experienced in the Dominion. Though not quite so much above normal as December, mean temperatures in January were very high. Rainfall was again much below average over a large part of th country, and though many drier Januaries have been experienced, the continued rain shortage, combined with the wry 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 to lose condition. Cereal crops 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 arc not good. Insect pests are rather troublesome in some districts. Nelson, Westland, parts of Otago and Southland, and some of the high country of the North Island, are in much better condition than the rest of the Dominion, but for the country as a whole the position is a serious one and rain is very badly needed.

Rainfall: Heavy rains were recorded in the western half of the Smith Island. Parts of eastern Otago and South Canterbury ami 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 and east coast districts of the North Island and most of Canterbury and Marlborough. Temperatures were everywhere considerably above the normal. In some parts, January ISS7 was hotter, but for the Dominion .as a whole last month was probably the hottest January, hitherto experienced. In the North Island " the departures from average were everywhere large,, but in the South conditions were less uniform. ""here were not many high temperature records broken but it was almost continuously warm, and many readings above 90 degrees were registered. Sunshine: South of Nelson and Marlborough the amount of sunshine recorded did not, as a rule, differ greatly from trie average for January, - but elsewhere the month was a very sunny one. Tauranga reports 327.6 hours, Blenheim 299.1, and Napier 293.9.

New Moon * 4 th 4.27 a.m. First Quarter 10th 9.25 p.m. Full Moon IS th 11.17 p.m. Last Quarter 26th 10.14 p.m.

Manukau Heads—Line Interrupted, cloudy 29.97 76 Cape Egmont NE. Wanganui calm blue sky 30.03 Wellington E. bhiy sky 30.04 69 Cape Campbell S. overcast 30.OS 65 Farewell Spit SE. overcast 30.01 i M Westport W. blue sky 29.99 71 Arthur's Pass calm blue sky 59 Kaikoura E. cloudy 30.0(1 70 Christchurch calm overcast 30.10 67 Dunedin N. blue sky 30.11 68 Bluff NE. blue sky 3O.O»5 63 Puysegur Point N. overcast. 30.05 63