Weather Eye with John Maunder

Rainfalls for the month of March have been recorded in Tauranga since 1898 – except for 1904, 1908, and 1909.

This graph shows the range of rainfalls from a high of 504mm in 1979, to a low of 5mm in 1943. The second wettest March was 1972 when 319mm was recorded, and two March months – 1910 and 2010 – recorded only 14mm. The long-term average rainfall for Tauranga for March is 110 mm.

The graph shows no significant overall trend in the rainfalls in March during the last 110 years, apart from a small increase in the average rainfall from 103mm in the 50 years ending in 1960, to 117mm in the 50 years to 2010. This can be compared with the months of January and February during the same 50 years, which both show a small decrease: In January, falls from 86mm to 81mm, and in February from 95mm to 86mm. Since 1898, there have been 11 March months with a rainfall of 200mm or more – the same as the number of months in February with more than 200mm –and six March months have had rainfall of 20mm or less.

The next Weather Eye on March 9 will discuss weather extremes in New Zealand during the last 150 years, one extreme occurring in Tauranga on April 17, 1948.