Historic: October 1988

[RWood]

October 1988: Marked by an almost continuous series of west or northwest airstreams, broken only on the 21st by the passage of a trough. Large north-south pressure differences made for a very windy month. Kelburn had 29 days with gusts to at least 63kph (34 knots), the highest number for any month for at least 21 years. Christchurch and Invercargill airports had 13 and 22 such days respectively, their highest since 1968 and (at least) 1953 respectively. MSLPs were exceptionally low over the south of the South Island – 995.5hPa at Invercargill, 15.2 below average and the lowest for any month in the record starting at 1948. At Kelburn the average of 1004.5 (-9.2) was October’s lowest since 1898.

Rainfall: Above normal in most western regions south of Auckland, Nelson and much of Southland. It was twice normal in Buller and Westland, but South Westland and Fiordland had 3-4 times normal. Locations with record high values included Mt Cook (Hermitage) with 1351mm and Milford Sound (1917mm). The latter had 3709mm in the last 3 months. Canterbury and North Otago have had a very dry 3 months, with only 22mm at Oamaru. In the 12 months to 31 October, Christchurch Airport recorded only 252mm. In October rainfall was 20-40% of normal in the east from Gisborne to Otago, including Wellington. Record lows occurred at Gisborne Airport (15mm) and Kaikoura (5mm). Rainfall was about 40-60% of normal in the Bay of Plenty and 60-75% of normal in Northland.

[Much higher rainfalls were being noted at higher altitude locations in this month and in some later years. North Egmont had 2845mm in October 1998].

Temperatures: Another warmer than normal month. The mean 13.2C was 1.1C above normal, and the highest since 1962’s 13.4C. It was the 5th consecutive month with above average temperatures. Means were about 2-3C above in eastern regions. They were 3.5C above at Napier Airport, 3.2C above in Kaikoura and 2.9C above at Christchurch Airport. Mean daily maximums of 21.7C (+4.9C) and 22.8C (+4.8C) were recorded at Ch’ch and Napier airports respectively. These were equivalent to midsummer values and were mainly due to the high frequency of days with NW winds. Mean temperatures were about 0.5-1.0C below normal in Westland and Fiordland, and were near normal in Southland and Central Otago. Elsewhere they were 1-1.5C above normal.

Sunshine: Again it was cloudier in western regions, south of Auckland. Hours were less than 70% of normal along the West Coast. They were 110-120% of normal in Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawkes Bay. Elsewhere they were near normal

[Record low values of 90hrs (Westport), 76 (Hokitika), 57(Greymouth and the Hermitage (Mt Cook). Greymouth’s value was 15% of the possible and the lowest NZ value for October if the unsatisfactory exposure at the Franz Josef is ignored].


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

[tich]

I wasn't living in Chch back then (Hamilton instead - I recall it being rather unsettled), but Chch normally has more (usually much cooler) northeasterlies than northwesterlies, so October 1988 must've been unusual for the city.

[RWood]

Oct 1988 was flagged as the most NW month in the NZ record (Milford rainfall almost 4 times average). Queenstwon had 279mm (memory) in about 23 days but still managed 180+ hrs of sun.