Dry in the northeast North Island, and also south Canterbury.
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Rainfall |
An unusually dry June in the north and east of the North Island, as well as South Canterbury. In contrast, extremely wet over the northern half of the South Island. Elsewhere, near normal rainfall was generally observed. |
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Temperatures |
Unusually cool in eastern and alpine areas of the South Island. Rather cool in Wellington and the Wairarapa, Central Plateau, Waikato, and parts of the Bay of Plenty. Generally near average temperatures elsewhere. |
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Sunshine |
An extremely sunny June for the southern South Island. Rather sunny across much of the North Island, too. |
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Soil moisture |
Below normal soil moisture levels in south Canterbury for the time of year; near normal elsewhere. |
Lower pressures than usual affected the area to the southeast of New Zealand during June 2012, resulting in more southwest winds than normal over the country. The month was notable due to several rapidly deepening, intense weather systems in the New Zealand region. In particular, a rapidly deepening low over the Tasman Sea on 5 and 6 June produced heavy precipitation in Tasman and Buller, and snow to sea level in Canterbury, whilst intense lows on 18 and 25/26 June resulted in severe winds across the South Island (and heavy rainfall in some areas).
It was an unusually dry June in the north and east of the North Island, as well as in South Canterbury. Rainfall totals in Northland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, and South Canterbury were less than half of June normal, and it was the driest June on record for Whangarei, Rotorua and Whakatane. Below normal totals (between 50 and 79 percent of June normal) were also observed in Auckland, Waikato, Taranaki, Central Plateau and the Wairarapa.
In contrast, it was an extremely wet June over the northern half of the South Island, with totals exceeding 120 percent of normal. Notably, in Christchurch and Nelson, totals were in the order of twice the June normal (i.e. 200 percent of normal). Near normal June rainfall totals were generally observed elsewhere.
June 2012 was notable for an extremely cold event on 6 June, in which afternoon (maximum) temperatures in Canterbury, Blenheim, around Arthurs Pass, and on the West Coast set new low records for the month, and in some cases, broke all-time (any month) records, too. Maximum temperatures on 6 June in Canterbury struggled to reach even 1 degree, with heavy snow falling throughout the daylight hours. In between southerly outbreaks, winter-time ridges of high pressure brought clear skies, and light winds, to the country on 13, 16, 17, and 30 June, producing extremely cold mornings and/or severe frosts for many regions.
For the month as a whole, it was unusually cool in eastern and alpine areas of the South Island. In contrast, near average June temperatures were observed along the Fiordland and Westland coastline, in Central Otago, and for coastal Nelson. Elsewhere in the South Island, as well as Wellington, Wairarapa, Central Plateau and the Waikato, as well as parts of the Bay of Plenty, below average temperatures were observed (between 0.5°C and 1.2°C below June average). For the remainder of the North Island, temperatures were generally near average. The nation-wide average temperature in June 2012 was 7.8°C (0.6°C below the 1971–2000 June average), using NIWA’s seven-station temperature series which begins in 1909.
It was an extremely sunny June for the southern South Island, with sunshine totals exceeding 125 percent of June normal. It was the sunniest June on record for Queenstown and Cromwell. Above normal sunshine totals were observed in most other North Island regions, too, except for Wellington and the Wairarapa, where near normal June sunshine was experienced. Sunshine totals were also close to normal across the northern half of the South Island.
Further Highlights:
- The highest temperature was 22.0°C, observed at Wairoa on 6 June.
- The lowest temperature was -11.8°C, at Darfield on 7 June.
- The highest 1-day rainfall experienced was 151 mm at Greymouth on 5 June.
- The highest gust recorded was 161 km/hr at Taiaroa Head on 28 June.
- Of the six main centres in June 2012, Auckland was the warmest, Auckland and Hamilton jointly the sunniest, Christchurch the coolest, Tauranga the driest, and Wellington the wettest and cloudiest.
Full report
Full details of the June 2012 climate summary (PDF 637 KB)
Climate statistics table
Climate statistics for June 2012 (PDF 79 KB)
For further information, please contact:
Ms Georgina Griffiths – Climate Scientist– NIWA National Climate Centre, Auckland,
Tel 09 375 4506 Mobile 0272 936545