The thermometer at Tawa Weather nearly registered a new record as the temperature steadily increased on Christmas Day.
Wednesday 26th December, 2012
Two days of hot, humid weather at Tawa came close to exceeding the highest temperature recorded by the Tawa Weather station since it was commissioned in 2005.
On Monday December 24th, the temperature climbed to a peak of 29.9 °C at 3:12 p.m. before slowly easing back.
The following day, Christmas Day, the temperature climbed to 31.4 °C at 2:10 p.m., close to the highest temperature of 32.0 °C recorded at 5:08 p.m. on February 5th, 2005.
With the remnants of tropical cyclone Evan in the vicinity of New Zealand, we have been experiencing high temperatures and humidity, fog has disrupted air travel in the lead-up to Christmas, and campers have been keeping a wary eye on the sky for thunderstorms and downpours of rain. The heavy rain forecast for Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Coromandel on Monday and Tuesday did not eventuate, but weather has been changeable.
At Tawa, the maximum temperature recorded today was 26.8 °C at 12:26 p.m. The temperature has now eased into the late teens after drizzle and low cloud drifted in.