I know you were/are absolutely sick of hearing me moaning and complaining about the wet weather we have endured this winter. Oh yes, I know it has been a very hot summer for all of you in the Northern Hemisphere, but here in Wellington, it has been wet! Incredibly wet and now we have the official figures to prove it.
Today we got new rainfall figures from Greater Wellington’s Environmental Science team to confirm that last winter was the wettest on record, following the misery of a summer that was also the wettest on record in the Wellington region.
The figures we are told, and on which we have to agree, “paint a portrait of suburbs soaked and districts drenched by record amounts of rainfall which exceeded many of the previous highest totals recorded across the entire region. On average, June rainfall was approximately 160% up on long-term seasonal averages, with July coming in higher at 200 per cent and August at 170 per cent.
“The main causes of the extremely wet pattern were three-fold, says Climate Change scientist Dr Alex Pezza.
“Background global warming increasing moisture in the air and leading to higher rainfall, a third consecutive year of a developing La Niña and the development of semi-permanent marine heatwaves around New Zealand.
“These factors contributed to an enhanced northerly flow and formation of the phenomenon known as ‘atmospheric rivers’, which brought large amounts of tropical moisture into our region. The compounding factor of the wet seasons is important and has led to lasting, disruptive and expensive consequences, says Dr Pezza.
“A chain of significant rain events effectively prevented our saturated soils from drying out, contributing to the severe slips seen in many areas of the capital by the end of winter.”
And just for your edification, this was our driveway for a couple of days during the worst of the rain.
And today almost as if it is mocking our joy that Spring is here, it has poured nonstop from early this morning, and still, it rains!
End of rant about the weather, except..
“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain
falling on the sunshine…”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
In a very wet Wellington
A World Apart 
Reblogged this on I choose how I will spend the rest of my life and commented:
Told you so!
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Weather strange here too.
We also have rain but more gentle stuff.
Missing our dams.
300kms up the road they are getting loads of rain and there is a forecast of bad storms and hail.
Think spring is still on vacation.
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I think we had spring on Tuesday last week. It’s gone and it’s still raining here
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I wonder, if the calendar says it’s spring, but the weather does not, is it really spring?
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October 2 and it’s still raining here. Just no let up
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Reblogged on Bridgesburning
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I’m watching, quite nervously, all the drastic weather changes. I wonder if we are beyond the point where we can correct the patterns. It scares me.
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