METEOROLOGICAL-RECORDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3101, 20 August 1913, Page 13

METEOROLOGICAL-RECORDS.

FIGURES FOR THE YEAR

INTERESTING COMPARISONS,

(From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August 8. In the advance sheets of the New Zealand Year Book, which were circulated todav, Mr D. C. Bates, the dominion meteorologist, has some most interesting figures in his articles upon “Climate ana Meteorology.” .... The chief interest of the article is in the information it contains relating to the comparative merits of different parts of New Zealand. One object kept in view in the article is to compare New Zealand with Britain, Europe, and America, in order to demonstrate its climatic adrantages. The dominion emerges from this comparison with distinct credit in almost et ery The sunshine records are particularly flattering to the dominion. The average in Britain ranges from 1200 hours per year in the north to 1600 in the south, while in Italy the average runs to 2000 or 2400 hours per year. The English average is easily distanced by every one of the six: places cited in the report, and even Italy’s figure of 2400 hours is handsomely exceeded by two places, lliese are Napier and Nelson. The former has averaged 2501 hours for the last six years, and the latter for the last four years lias reached 2467 hours. Other places mentioned are Gisborne 2059 hours, Moumahaki 1870 hours, Wellington 2078 hours, and Lincoln 2103 hours.

lii the matter of rainy days,, various points compare on the average as follows : —Auckland 180.4 days per year, New Plymouth 189.7, Gisborne 153.8, Wellington 167.7, Christchurch 119.4, Hokitika, 179.2, Dunedin 163.3. The total rainfall for 1912 was less than the normal in the Auckland, - Gisborne, and Hawke’s Bay districts, but in the south part of the island, and over nearly the whole of the South Island the aggregate was above the average. The coastal stations of Canterbury showed an excess ranging from 12 to as much as 70 per cent. The rainfall records of last year were as follows:—Auckland 43.06 inches (206 days), Rotorua 53.40 inches (150 days), Gisborne 43.38 inches (146 days). New Plymouth 52.36 inches (194 days), Wellington 48.30 inches (195 days). Nelson 30.56 inches (125 days), Hokitika 115.61 inches (177- days), Christchurch 27.49 inches (146 days), Hanmer 45.28 inches (140 days), Lincon 32.16 inches (141 days), Dunedin 47.31 inches (152 days). The records of wind velocities are quite interesting and establish beyond all doubt the truth of the alliterative nickname “Windy Wellington.” The average velocity per day over the last dozen years works out in this fashion : Auckland 180 miles per day, Wellington 282 miles, Hokitika 135 miles, Lincoln 164 miles. Not only in the average but also in the maximum rate is Wellington superior. The maximum velocity in Auckland was in October IS, 1897, when 974 miles in one day was recorded. Hokitika on December 6, 1911, recorded 693 miles; Lincoln, on November 4, 1904, recorded 967 miles; but Wellington, on June 5. 1911, distanced all with a record of 1200 miles, or an hourly rate of 50 miles. The highest rate reached at the new wireless station has been 127 miles per hour. The wettest place of the year was Otira, with 175.92 inches. The driest place was Galloway, Central Otago, with 14.52 inches. ’ The maximum fall in 24 hours was at The Hermitage. Mount Cook, when on July 10, 1912, 10.37 inches fell. This was quite exceptional, as the next competitor was Okuru with 6.16 incites. The -highest temperatures of the year all fell to the lot of Canterbury. Hanmer led with 97 degrees on February 6; Lincoln was next with 92.8 on December 29 ; Christchurch was third with 90 on the same day ; and Rotorua and Greenmeadow were equal with 86. Gisborne reached 88, ’Auckland 78, Wellington 77.8, and Dunedin 83 degrees.