Last month was one of the warmest Marches ever recorded in New Zealand, according to NIWA.
In a climate summary released today, NIWA says the nationwide average temperature was 17.6°C in March, which is "above the 1981-2010 March average from NIWA’s seven station temperature series which began in 1909". Last month tied for the second warmest March on record.
A marine heatwave also persisted last month in the Tasman Sea and off parts of New Zealand's coast.
While temperatures were above average, rainfall was below normal for much of the North Island.
A late deluge of rain on the West Coast meant that rainfall for the South Island was above normal.
More rain would be a welcome sight for farmers, as at April 1 "drier than normal soils were present across the majority of the North Island and a large portion of the South Island".
The western Bay of Plenty is the driest place in the country and is officially in "drought conditions", NIWA reports.
Highlights of March conditions from NIWA:
• The highest temperature was 32.4°C, observed in Waipara West on 5 March.
• The lowest temperature was -1.5°C, observed in Hanmer Forest on 1 March.
• The highest 1-day rainfall was 401.0 mm, recorded at Milford Sound on 25 March.
• The highest wind gust was 139 km/h, observed at Cape Turnagain on 14 March.
• Of the six main centres in March 2019, Auckland was the warmest, Dunedin was the coolest, driest and sunniest, Wellington was the wettest, and Christchurch was the least sunny.
• Of the available, regularly reporting sunshine observation sites, the sunniest four regions in 2019 are Wider Nelson (857 hours), Marlborough (833 hours), Bay of Plenty (819) and Taranaki (819 hours).
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