We are now nearing the end of January and the changeable cooler weather continues. On the 24th January the weather station recorded a low of 9.1°C which is the coolest January temperature in several years. Another colder change moved up the country over the 26th/27th with snow to unusually low levels in the far south of NZ. The colder SW change arrived in Howick about 2pm on the 27th dropping the temperature to 15°C at 3pm - abnormally low for that time of day in late January. Often at this time of year we are seeing days over 25°C along with humid conditions - but the weather station had not even hit 25.0°C once during the whole summer! (although 24.8 was recorded on 2 days). Warmer weather should arrive soon as we head into February. Hopefully we'll have a warmer-than-normal March to make up for what 'summer' has thrown at us so far ;)

As you will have noticed, the site has recently been redesigned, with new content and layout. Do you have any thoughts on the new site? I would love to hear them - please leave a comment below!

November has been a windy month so far, in fact the windiest recorded by this station so far in its 2 years of record-keeping. The weather has not settled into a stable pattern yet - the Spring westerlies continue to blow over NZ, but the rain-bearing fronts and troughs have become less frequent and less vigorous. It has been a dry month overall, with only 38 mm recorded so far. Wednesday afternoon was a nice reminder that summer is near, with a max temp of 24°C being recorded. Bring on the sunny summer days!

Hasn't been too much to mention lately. The site has remained largely unchanged, there has not been any significant weather events for Spring so far. We are starting to warm up a bit now as we head towards summer, with a few days getting to around 20°C. A warmer than normal summer is expected. :)

The recent cold blast set a couple of new records for the Howick weather station:

1. Lowest daily max temp, 8.7°C
2. Highest wind gust, 86 km/h

The gust of 86 km/h occurred on Monday 15th around 8.40am. There was some local damage. Other nearby areas look to have had gusts of 100 km/h judging by some of the tree damage. The lowest daily high of 8.7°C occurred on the 16th. The previous day was generally colder, the high of 9.5°C on that day was in the early hours in the morning and the temperature after 9am that day did not even reach 8°C.

And finally the cold blast was responsible for a string of cold mornings, with light frosts recorded:

The July 2011 summary is now available. The key points are:

• Mean temperature 10.6°C
• Mean minimum 7.4°C, mean maximum 14.4°C
• Lowest temp 0.7°C, highest 16.9°C
• 138mm rain (about average)

A few changes are coming into effect shortly, namely:

1. Removal of the Gauges page
2. Changes to the Graphs page
3. Database menu link removed, link now found in the historic section

The gauges page is being removed because any info on it can be found on other parts of the site, and due to upload restrictions - this is a result of the changes to the graphs page. The graphs page is being changed to provide a different graph format and to add 72 Hour graphs as well as 24 Hour graphs. The database has not moved location, but the link to it is found by clicking on the Historic menu item.

Firstly, the live weather page has been modified, with a better-looking and more logical layout. And a new page has been added, called long-term trends. This page gives monthly statistics and plots them on interactive graphs.

The monthly summary pages have been modified with a new layout, which is nicer on the eye and hopefully easier to look through. Here is an example: June 2011 summary.

Feedback and comments always welcome.

The colder weather we expect in winter has finally set in the last week. The last 4 nights have been down to 5°C or lower. However, ground frost has not yet been observed at the Howick weather station site. Yesterday (30th June) reached 12.2°C and the previous day (29th June) was colder on 11.7°C, however the temperature on that day did not reach 10°C until about 12.40pm.

The June 2011 summary is complete and can be found here. Overall it was a warmer than usual June. Here are some of the main statistics from the Howick station:

• Overall average temperature 12.7°C
• Average daily low 9.9°C, average daily high 15.7°C
• Lowest temperature 2.8°C, highest temperature 19.3°C
• 142 mm of rain (near normal)
• Highest daily rain 29 mm

After 4 soggy days, Auckland finally enjoyed a mostly sunny day today. These are the sorts of days we really appreciate in Winter, especially after seeing grey and dampness for days on end. Below is the view of Auckland city taken around mid-afternoon. Thanks to Sitecam for permission to use this image. This excellent webcam can be found here. Make sure you bookmark it - it's the best free Auckland webcam I've come across!

The May 2011 detailed summary is now available, and is found here. Sorry it took so long, these take a bit of time to produce (typing out daily weather, importing monthly data into spreadsheet, etc.) and I found myself lacking that time the last few weeks. Here is a brief summary:

• Unusually mild - nationally it was the warmest on record
• Overall average temperature 14.8°C
• Min temperature 4.6°C, max temperature 21.0°C
• Near normal rainfall (124 mm)
• Highest daily rain 38 mm
• The 3rd had a low of 17°C, fairly warm for May.

The last 4 days have been quite soggy in Auckland, with 62 mm rain recorded in Howick. I was looking back on last year and comparing to this year, it sure has been very different. So far this year, we've had double the rainfall at this time last year (but we did have a drought back then). The mild temperatures are continuing, with winter cold yet to set in. The mean minimum this month is 11.4°C, several degrees higher than normal.

Make the most of today and tomorrow - unsettled weather is due by Thursday.

The incredibly mild weather of May is continuing well into June. We are currently at the midway point of the month and the average temperature is around 2 degrees above normal. Almost every night this month has been mild, only 4 nights have fallen to single-figure lows. The average low so far is 11.6°C. It should be 3 degrees less in a "normal" June. Rainfall so far is also a little below what I would expect at the midway point, at 43 mm.

The mild weather looks set to continue for a while longer, with no cold snaps in the 7 day models at this stage. An anticyclone may cross the country next week however, which should at least bring some cooler nights.

The new version of the database has been released. Extra data parameters are daily high rain rate, daily high and low pressure, and daily windrun. A sample can be found here.

The database is now back up and running after the site moved to a new web host. The new database has more data than the previous one. The old version of the database page is working again, a new version is being worked on that utilises the extra weather data in the database. The historic summaries still need fixing up as well - should be done by end of the weekend.

Now to the weather, a moderate chance of thunderstorms exists for tomorrow. Today was a nice day, but in general the weather pattern remains unsettled. Widespread fog affected Auckland this morning, disrupting flights at Auckland Airport. Temperatures are unusually mild for the time of year, and will continue like this for a while yet.

Some notes on April:

• Rainfall total of 123 mm near average, perhaps slightly above. Wetter than April last year (51 mm)
• New record high rain rate of 177 mm/hr occurred at 4.42am on the 18th. However, this downpour was very brief
• Average temperature 15.7°C, slightly cooler than April 2010
• A chilly low of 4.8°C occurred on morning of the 19th. The lowest during April 2010 was 6.1°C
• Highest gust was 65 km/h from the SSW, on the 18th.