Historic: September 1989

[RWood]

September 1989: As with August, a month without much wind. Frequent north-easterly airstreams kept temperatures above normal over the whole country, especially in Westland. They contributed to drier and sunnier than normal conditions in western regions south of Waikato, and in the far south.
Both Dunedin and Invercargill airports had no “windy” days (those with gusts
to at least 63kph), the first such incidence for Invercargill in September since 1957.

Rainfall: Gisborne had a record high value of 242mm; record lows of 9mm occurred at Kelburn,Wellington and Invercargill Airport.

Low totals of about 10% of normal were recorded in Wellington and coastal Southland. Totals were mostly 20-40% of normal in western regions south of Waikato, and in inland Southland and Otago. It was also drier than usual in Wairarapa, South Canterbury and eastern areas of Southland and Otago. It was wetter than usual in parts of Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, East Cape, Buller and Canterbury where totals were 120-200% of normal. Rainfall of 200-300% of normal was recorded in areas from Poverty Bay to Hawkes Bay, and up to four times normal on the Kaikoura Coast, where there were slips.

Temperatures: The mean temperature for the country was 11.5C, 1.2C above normal, exceeded only by 1988 (1.6C above). Record high maxima occurred at Hokitika, New Plymouth Airport and Wellington (Kelburn and Airport).

Sunshine: Sunshine was 120-130% of normal in Taranaki, Westland, Fiordland, Southland and Otago. It was 110-120% of normal in western parts of the North Island from Wanganui to Horowhenua. In most other regions it was 80-90% of normal. It was rather dull from East Cape to Poverty Bay, along the Kaikoura Coast, and in Marlborough where totals were 70-80% of normal.

[Some of the noteworthy contrasts are shown in these values: Hamilton (124), New Plymouth (202), Gisborne (122), Wanganui (200), Takaka (149), Greymouth (197), Blenheim (138), Christchurch (129), Alexandra (214) and Invercargill (171)].


Sources: NZ Met. Misc. pub. 107 (Climatological table, NZ Gazette) and NZ Met. Misc. pub. 109 (Meteorological Observations) - additional comments by the poster.

[ATO2]

Just a comment on the three Septembers, RWood. There were tornadoes in my area in two out of the three!

[RWood]

Basically coincidence - I picked three Septembers that were markedly different from each other. Mind you, since then the Metservice's/NIWA's descriptions of tornadoes and related events have changed a bit I think - they used to use the term "tornado" in the reports whether or not there was evidence of rotation, and there was probbaly not much checking done in some cases.

[ATO2]

Thanks. I wondered about that. Am I right in thinking that a man was killed because of a tornado in Opunake? Around the 70's?

[RWood]

I'll have to let someone else pick up on that one... but I think you're right.

[rainfan]

Interesting re the lack of "strong wind" days for Ivc; Sept. 1957 was also very dry & sunny with 13 mm/176 hrs. Oct - Nov was quite unplesant with many days of wet/windy/cloudy W weather, this continued well into the former part of 1958.

I was in Invercargill during Dec. 1989 spending Xmas with relatives, the period around Xmas Day was very wet & cold with heavy rain as I remember it, also I recall the max. that day was about 13oC or so. (Also remember watching the last ever episode of Sons and Daughters on the same day as the rain forced us to remain indoors )

For Sydney - a very dry and sunny month with monthly totals between 0 - 2mm & 264 hrs, the 1980s saw quite some very dry Septembers for Sydney (1980, 1981, 1987 & 1989).

[RWood]

Originally Posted by rainfan

Interesting re the lack of "strong wind" days for Ivc; Sept. 1957 was also very dry & sunny with 13 mm/176 hrs. Oct - Nov was quite unplesant with many days of wet/windy/cloudy W weather, this continued well into the former part of 1958.

I was in Invercargill during Dec. 1989 spending Xmas with relatives, the period around Xmas Day was very wet & cold with heavy rain as I remember it, also I recall the max. that day was about 13oC or so. (Also remember watching the last ever episode of Sons and Daughters on the same day as the rain forced us to remain indoors )

For Sydney - a very dry and sunny month with monthly totals between 0 - 2mm & 264 hrs, the 1980s saw quite some very dry Septembers for Sydney (1980, 1981, 1987 & 1989).

There was an abrupt transition from dry anticyclonic conditions in Sept 1957 to a wild El Nino with heavy rainfall, cool temps and generally very low sun from Oct 1957 to May 1958 for the west and south of the SI, also Central Otago to a certain extent. Many other parts of the country were wet and/or cloudy from Oct - Feb.

Dec. 1989 was more complicated. There was quite a lot of dry sunny weather in Southland, the hinterland and the West Coast up to the 22nd between some wet episodes. However there was a major deterioration form the 23rd. The Met longrange forecast was miles out - it expected high pressures to dominate in the south by Xmas day with some settled weather. However stormy W/NW conditions set in with general rain and showers for several days. On the West Coast this continued right through to a few days into January. We were travelling there from 23rd, just got out of Haast before the road closed for a few hours. Couldn't even look at glaciers, too wet and unpleasant. It was fairly fine from the 28th in Queenstown and Wanaka, though rather cool. Monthly totals of sun were 276 at Q'town, 222 Invercargill and just 155 at Dunedin (a rather suspect value). Thanks particularly to the last week, rainfall totals were very high in the west with 2403 at Cropp Hut and 2722 at Waterfall. This rain experience strengthened my resolve to have a major holiday in a dry place - central and northern Chile! When we finally had another short trip to the Coast in March 2003 the weather was lovely.

[rainfan]

Now that you mention it, (Checked diary) we arrived on December 3rd 1989 & left on January 8th 1990, the first part was dry & sunny but quite cool with few warm days. Only a few days later after Xmas, it was around 24oC. In reference to the rain - someone commented sarcastically that we had brought over the bad weather from Oz! (which wasn't exactly true as we had a very dry spring but Dec. was also wet in Sydney with more than 200% of the average). Also several people at the time commented that Aug/Sept had "better" weather, Southlanders it seemed at the time, had quite excellent memories when it comes to "good" weather. We went to Queenstown & Central Otago just before NY's for a week, it was much warmer there (compared to Ivc.) with some quite very warm days & sunshine was plentiful as I remember it. We also swam (with eyes open) in one of the rivers near Arrowtown, the water was so cool and yet very nice as that day was very warm with the sun beating down.

[RWood]

There were some weather ironies in the rest of our trip. We had a quick side trip to Milford early in the January. Given that it wasn't fine, I wanted it to rain properly to see waterfalls in action - but it didn't cooperate, just cloudy with a bit of drizzle late in the day (in 6 trips, I've never seen any decent rain at Milford!).

After some more time in Central Otago and with family in Ch'ch our last act was driving from Ch'ch to Picton. It was a hot day all the way despite some cloudy patches but the promised 34C or so didn't quite happen in Ch'ch (it peaked at about 32 before 10am). Our accommodation in Picton was an old DB hotel with concrete block units. The room hadn't been airing, was facing west and was stiflingly hot. It was still hot when we got up at 4am for an early ferry - not a good arrangement!