THE WEATHER FOR JULY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1746, 23 August 1905, Page 72

THE WEATHER FOR JULY

REMARKS OF THE OBSERVER.

The following is extracted from the report of the Meteorological observer, the Rev D. C Bates, for the month of July:— July is regarded as the midwinter month of New Zealand, because the temperature is then lowest, and the rainfall generally the heaviest. This year, however, the rainfall was mostly heavier in June, and though the temperature shows a decline; yet the weather of July was on the whole fairly mild, and marked by an absence of high winds. The most remarkable features in the . rainfall returns are the continuances of a wet period on the east coast of the North Island, and of the dry spell in £he south of the South Island, Invercargill and Dipton recording minimum falls for July for fourteen years' returns. West of the dividing ranges of the North Island (that is. oyer Taranaki and Wellington) the rainfall is only about half the July average, but on the east side of the ranges, in the Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay districts, the rainfall is quite double the usual. Elsewhere over the centre of the North Island the rainfall was about the average for previous years. but in excess over the Thames and Bay of Plenty. North of Auckland the records are more uneven. The record at Pakaraka is lower than that in any previous July in fourteen years, but elsewhere the fall was considerable. In the South Island, in Canterbury and the West Coast, the rainfall was above the July average.

Several fiosts occured, but not very severe. The morning of the 3rd was the coldest throughout the colony; but the atmospheric conditions were most disagreeable about the 17th and 18th, when the barometer was rising, with southerly winds, cold rains, and snow in parts of both Islands. Several mornings and evenings were foggy, and the absence of wind prevented evaporation, so that the lands and roads did not dry up as much as desired after the frequent and light showers experienced during the month. Thunder and lightning occurred on the night of the 25th. and bn this date Mr K. W. Dalrymple, of Waitatapia, Bulls, reports, “A thunderbolt apparently fell on the road about a mile from here. People close at hand heard a loud clap almost as it something hit the roof, and next morning there was a hole about 4ft deep with clear-cut edges." Search was to be made for a meteoric substance but it is believed that none will be found, and that the hole is simply the effect of electricity which dispersed on reaching the water in the subsoil.

With regard to growth duri ~< the month, the same observer remarks: — “Another very fine month for winter; grass still growing peaches coming into flower, willows and gooseberries shooting, and fig-buds just opening." Miss Trimble, of Inglewood, remarks“ The gooSe-berry-bushes, always the first to show signs of life, were bursting into leaf at the end of the month." The report from Kamo, North of Auckland, states:— “It is interesting to note that spring flowers Have made a sudden growth. Annual sweet peas sown here in January have also started to flower freely, and would appear to have almost, the power of blossoming twice in thA year. This general growth among flowers the observer attributes to the lengthening of the hours of light rather than to any other cause." Mr H. A. Goudie. at the Rotorua State Nursery, reported having had quite a number of beautiful days, and he noticed that many of the trees and shrubs are responding to the warmth, and the buds are swelling rapidly. He also soys:—“An unusual experience, and one which I never observed before, came under my notice this winter. The larch, though a deciduous tree, never sheds its leaves in the one-year state, but invariably sheds them during the second year of its existence. Our crop of two-year-old larch numbering some three million trees, has, during the past winter, retained their green appearance to the same extent as the one-year-old trees. The only way in which I can account for this is that the weather hag been much milder, and that the growth has never really stopped throughout the winter months." On the southern parts of both islands the weather was most favourable to agricultural pursuits.