WEATHER RECORDS COMPARED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20337, 20 February 1928, Page 2

WEATHER RECORDS COMPARED.

TO IHX EDITOR. Sir, — The comparative table from which I quoted in my letter appearing in your paper of the 4th inst., is one issued by a well known fb;rn of pnerchants, giving the figures from tho New Zealand Official Year Book for the last 13 years—l9l4 to 1926 presumably, I take it, to show that wo nave no right to grumble at our weather with an average of 156 days on which rain fell,. and a total fall of 36.20 in against Auckland’s average of 191 days and 50.55 in, and Wellington’s 156 days am] 39.95iu. “ More Truth,” from Whangarei, replying to this, does not dispute tho figures, but asks why I did not state the mean average temperatures (which ho gives) and the hours of sunshine. The answer to that is that they were not mentioned in the table. I am indebted to “ More Truth ” for supplying these figures, particularly the latter. Aucldand has 1.944 hours of sunshine, Dunedin 1.663—a difference of 281 hours, or approximately three-quarters of an hour per day in favour -of Aucldand. Now, as Dunedin nestles cosily at the foot of lovely, lofty, bush-olad hills on tho east, north and west ,it is quite possible if tho records are taken at sea level or anything approximating it, that the 45 minutes could easily be accounted for. Auckland, as far as I remember it, with the exception of Mount Eden, is fairly open and free from obstructions, and I am astonished at the low position Auckland takes compared with a of other towns in New Zealand in the matter of sunshine hours per year. If “ More Truth ” will take the trouble to look into this he will find Auckland’s hours of sunshine are nothing to cable home about. Weighing the deficiency of the hours of sunshine in ’ Dunedin as against the surplus wet days and the total fall in Auckland, I say again we might be worse off.

Climate and weather are things we cannot control, but when northerners say, as many of them do, that it is always raining in Dunedin, these figures give the lie direct. It is just as well for them to know, and for us to remember, that for the last 13 years, as per the table, it has rained on the average 35 more days in the year in Auckland. We down here are getting as much sunshine, perhaps, ns we deserve, Auckland as much rain as is good for it. “so why worry?” Thirteen years are quite a fair distance to go back, but assuming we do take the 70 years’ averages shown in the Year Book, the mean average rainfall for Dunedin is given as 37.00 over that period, but in a note the Statistician says that records are taken in several places in Dunedin, and vary according to position, and the mean average would be about 33.5 Taking that figure as against Auckland’s 44.44 for the long period, we have a difference in our favour of practically 11 inches per year, which, though less than the statistics for the last 13 years, is not so very far out as to be a matter of any great consequence, and it does not alter the fact that we really have nothing to grumble at and much to be thankful for. — I am, etc.. Truthful James. February 17.