WEATHER IN 1930.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20760, 31 December 1930, Page 7

WEATHER IN 1930.

RAINFALL ABOVE AVERAGE.

A VERY LATE SUMMER.

NO SHORTAGE . OF - WATER.

The rainfall in Auckland during 1930 was 46.64 in., which is nearly ,2in. above the average of 44.97 in. However, less wet weather was experienced than in .1929, when the total rainfall was 50.99 in. There were 195 days on which rain fell this year, compared with 206 days last year. Unusually heavy rain occurred early in the year, and it was not uhtil March and April that the real summer was-ex—-perienced. However, the dryness of December promises an earlier summer on this occasion. The rainfall this month totalled only ,81in., compared with the December average of 2.90 in. Curiously, January was the wettest month of the year with 8.40 in.

The distribution of rainy days was as follows:—January, 13;' February, 11; March, 3; Aprili 15; May, 17; June, 22; July, 23; August, 14; September, 25; October, 20; November, 20; December, 12. The rainfall of ,24in. in March was the smallest recorded in that month during the 74 years that statistics have been collected in Auckland.

The following table gives the rainfall for the last five years: —

In spite of the unusually dry December, there is no likelihood of .a shortage of water occurring, as was the case when very dry weather was experienced in December, 1927, and January, 1928. Since that time the Huia; dam has been completed, and the capacity of the Waitakere dam greatly increased. At the end of last November the four dams, Waitakere. Nihotupu, Nihotupu Upper and Huia, were full. Since then there has been a slight fall in the Waitakere and Nihotupu levels, but last week there was a small overflow at Huia, and the Nihotupu auxiliary dam was also full. The lotal amount of water then in storage was about 1,490,000,000 gallons, which is more i,han usual at this time of the year. The rainy weather early in November was responsible for the additional amount available. Mr. A. Mead, waterworks engineer to the Auckland City Council, recently expressed the opinion that was no danger of -a shortage during the holiday period, even with continued fine weather. The wettest year on record was 1917, when the total fall was 73.70 in. The driest year was 1885, when only 23.14 in. fell.

During December, the mean barometrical reading was 30.063 in., with extremes of 30.232 on the first, and 29.649 on the 16th. The mean maximum temperature was 72 degrees, and the minimum, 58 degrees, with extremes of 84 degrees on the 28th and 46 degrees on'the 13th. There was a total of 220 hours 30 minutes of bright sunshine, the maximum being 13 hours 35 minutes On the 28th. There \was no day without sunshine.

1930. 1929, 1928. 1927. 1920. January 8.1(1 1.33 .20 1.40 4.04 February .. G.Cfi .61 1.01 5.58 2.56 March !. . .21 5.02 3.45 4.57 2.42 April •.. 2.85 4.02 4.90 3.93 1.55 May .. 2.74 4.10 10.41 5.29 13.70 June .. 4.21 5.63 5.84 7.09 4.87 July .. i?.J9 6.02 8.53 8.47 2.81 August 3.37 4.89 3.?4 0.96 0.03 September .. 4.62 2.36 7.84 4.31 2.87 October .. 6.11 4.05 5.21 2.06 7.55 November .. 3.11 7.09 1.S9 1.57 7.54 December .. .61 3.40 6.00 1.14 6.39 Totals ..'46.64 50.93 59.26 53.23 62.98