The long, dry autumn has certainly come to an end, but the Wellington region has been spared the worst of the weather brought by the latest series of low pressure systems to pass over the country.
Tuesday 25th May 2010
The Wellington region was expecting steady rain today as a deep low pressure system passed over central New Zealand. Worse weather was forecast for other parts of the country (Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Canterbury and North Otago), and the weather event still has some time to run in South Island areas.
At Tawa, rain has been steady for most of the day, as forecast by Metservice. 21 mm of rain had been recorded by 5:00 p.m. today, with 9 mm recorded yesterday.
Rain fell most heavily just before 4 p.m. when a peak rain rate of 16 mm/hr was recorded. The heavier rainfall caused some surface flooding with Police issuing a warning to users of the State Highways near Tawa, Churton Park and Petone, and the Petone foreshore, of flooded roads.
Rainfall has since eased, but is expected to continue over the coming days.
With rainfall sitting at 21 mm so far today, it is close to the wettest day so far during 2010. That record was set on January 16th when 26 mm was recorded at Tawa. Since the weather station was commissioned in 2005, our wettest day has been the 20th of February 2009 when 54 mm of rain fell.
So far this month, the Tawa weather station has recorded 89 mm, returning to a more typical rainfall pattern for the area. April was drier than normal, with only 33 mm of rain being recorded. April rainfall between 2006 and 2009 was typically between 54 and 100 mm, with April 2005 being almost as dry with only 35 mm recorded.