State of Our Environment

El Niño is now the name of the game and westerlies, westerlies, westerlies tend to be the result!

That’s what we were dished up in June and an obvious east-west split in rainfall is testimony to that. The ranges snagged most of the rainfall while the likes of the Heretaunga Plains were drip-fed. River flows ended the month mostly below normal, despite a wetting of the headwaters. Groundwater is looking okay and soil moisture is really quite good… in patches.

At this time of year it takes only a wee tip in the westerly winds from north to south for temperatures to swing from salubrious to sadistic and in June temperatures were all about symmetry – about as many days 20°C or higher as there were 10°C or lower, while both day and night time temperatures were in cahoots as they copied each other’s roughly half a degree rise above normal.

Only the one air quality exceedance for the Bay in June, which isn’t bad compared to the six we had this time last year – and goes to show that chronic windiness can be a blessing in the right situation.

Report at a glance. For the full run down visit our website.

ENDS

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