After a brief break on Wednesday, rain has continued to fall steadily in Tawa this week.
Saturday 29th May 2010
More records have fallen for Tawa Weather since our wettest day in five years on Tuesday. This May is now the wettest since the Tawa Weather station was commissioned in 2005.
A brief let-up on Wednesday allowed some to rush out and clear drains and repair minor damage after the heavy rain of Tuesday night. Steady rain has fallen since and “cabin fever”, especially for those with bored kids, is becoming a daily challenge.
With two more days to go, this is already the wettest May since the Tawa Weather station was commissioned in 2005. Rainfall figures for previous May months are: 2005 (118 mm), 2006 (109 mm), 2007 (44 mm), 2008 (98 mm), 2009 (118 mm). To midday today (Saturday 29th) Tawa Weather had recorded 172 mm for May 2010.
Some rainfall figures for Tawa this week: Monday (9 mm), Tuesday (80 mm), Wednesday (7 mm), Thursday (6 mm), Friday (22 mm). A further 8 mm had been recorded by midday today.
Yesterday was the coldest day so far this year with an average daytime (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) temperature of 8.7 ºC. This is in sharp contrast to the earlier part of May when the thermometer climbed to a balmy 19.7 ºC on Wednesday the 12th, the warmest May temperature since the weather station was commissioned.
As the memory of Tuesday’s weather fades, those who would like to relive the fun, might like to have a look at the MetService blog site. A description of the storm up until May 27th has been written-up by Chris Webster of MetService. If you have the time, it is worth a read.
For those of you on dial-up, click on the link and, when it begins loading, go and make a brew because the embedded animated weather map could take about 10 minutes to download. But it is definitely worth the effort. The six-day animated weather map shows the low pressure systems attacking from the west and spiralling about each other like spinning dumbbells as they pass over the country. At times they seem to be chasing each other like rabid amoeba as they collide and combine.
While the map downloads, read through the description below it, as it explains a lot of what is going on.
The animated rain radar image, accessed by clicking on the radar image of New Zealand, shows the rainfall for the 25th and 26th of May and is fascinating. Tawa residents with webbed feet should note the concentrated stream of blue that hung around the south-west corner of the North Island for most of the period. Dial-up users should find something useful to do for 15 minutes while this beast downloads but it is worth the effort.
Click here to view Chris Webster’s story.