NEW ZEALAND RAINFALL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2598, 4 September 1909, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND RAINFALL.

EXCESS ON LAST YEAR. 1 (Per Press Association.! WELLINGTON, September 3. The total rainfalls for August from a number of representative stations over the Dominion have been coded and telegraphed into the meteorological office, Wellington, where the director has compared the results with the means for the same stations in previous yeai*s. It is found that the total rainfall was in excess of the usual in all parts of the- Dominion, excepting on the East Coast and Castlepoint, where it was somewhat below the mean. The North Island in general had an excessive rainfall, and when the whole of the returns are in Mr Bates thinks the results will show about 75 per cent, greater than the mean for the month of August. The South Island, taken as a whole, had about 30 per cent, more than, usual, but in the southern districts the rainfall was over double in the mean, for the month of August is' reckoned to be the last month of winter in New Zealand, and in both winter and spring the North Island lias usually a greater..-rainfall than the South. The first- wdek’df the month -was meet stormy, and a cyclonic disturbance in the North was immediately followed by a westerly depression over the South. High pressure followed until the 13th. when the barometer at the Bluff fell an inch ,in thirty hours, and strong westerly winds followed. Excepting for a small- but sharp- disturbance on the 21st, the remainder of a big storm from Australia, the weather was under anti-cyclonic conditions, with fine days and frosty nights, but towards the close of the month the weather became very Unsettled, first in the North and afterwards in the South. In the North Island the greatest rainfall; was at Waihi, 16.58 inches on 27 days; Auckland, had 7.13 inches on 22 days; New Plymouth 6.68 inches on 23 days, Wanganui 7.32 inches on 23 days, and Wellington 5.36 inches on 19 days. Hokitika had the greatest fall in the South Island, 12.26 inches on 19 days; Blenheim had 4.81 inches on 15 days, Christchurch 2.30 inches on 11 days, aud Dunedin 3.92 inches on eight days.