Goodbye November, hello summer

Rosalie Liddle Crawford caught the last day of November and Spring on camera.

December 1st is the official start of summer in New Zealand and Australia - it's called the meteorological start to the season and the first of the month is chosen to make record keeping simple and easy and clean.

Most of New Zealand experienced a very wet November, due to frequent lows on the weather map.

It was the wettest November on record for Wellington, and the third wettest November for Dunedin.

'Kelburn recorded 239mm of rainfall last month, a new record for November since observations there began in 1928,” says MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths.

'Dunedin clocked up its third wettest November, in records since 1918.”

In contrast, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay were drier than normal during November and suffered record-breaking November heat - on November 23 the mercury hit 33.4C at Napier Airport and 33.3C at Gisborne Airport.

Looking ahead, New Zealand should see an improvement in the weather patterns in the lead up to Christmas.

Highs are expected to often hang around the North Island through December, with westerly winds prevailing over the South Island. Below normal December rainfall is predicted for much of the country.

The exceptions are the West Coast of the South Island, and also from Taranaki down to Wellington. In these areas, near normal December rainfall totals are expected.

'A drier than usual December is forecast for those living in the north and east of both Islands,” says Georgina.

'And for most people, December should be much drier than November was.” Monthly temperatures are predicted to be above average for eastern areas of both islands, and near average elsewhere.

'Further hot days (in excess of 25°C) are very likely in the next few weeks for Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Marlborough and Canterbury.” And while some barbecue weather is certainly in the mix this December, not every day will be dry or warm or sunny.

'Some of these highs may well be rather cloudy, and we'll still get rain bands on the weather map during December.”

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