Thirsty vines Summer girdling Compost teas Organic marketing The ...

54
Image provided by the NOAA/ESRL Physical Sciences Division, Boulder Colorado from their Web site at
http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/.
December 2006 is at the top and November
2007 is at the bottom.
It was a cold start to summer. In fact
December 2006 was the coldest in many
places for the past 50 years. This was likely
due to the effect of some melt-water
fl ooding northwards from out of the
southern ocean. We even had some
icebergs off the South Island. Summer only
brought near average temperature, but
there were warm episodes in autumn,
especially in May. Winter arrived with a bang
in early June, but winter and spring seemed
to have a chaotic mix of warm and cool
periods. Things started to warm quickly in
late November.
If you compare the temperature anomaly
graph shown above with the one for 2005
published in the January 2006 New Zealand
Kiwifruit Journal you’ll see that, overall,
2007 was cooler than 2005.
The Hawke’s Bay drought fi nally broke in
June 2007. Rain amounts were between 15
per cent and 79 per cent of normal for nine
out of ten months. Direct losses to livestock
farmers through this period have been
estimated to be around $300 million, and
some have been calling it the drought of
the century.
Looking at the Insurance Council of New
Zealand’s web site shows that the cost of
insured weather damage payouts in New
Zealand (at http://www.icnz.org.nz/current/
wx.php) 2007 stands (to end of November)
at $81 million , compared with $50 million
for 2006. The main storm for 2007, as
measured by insured loss payouts of $50.5
million, was the storm that affected
Northland, Auckland and Coromandel on
10-12 July. This was given a special mention
in the weather article in the September
Kiwifruit Journal. The second worst storm
was a similar event (payout of $12.5 million)
affecting the Far North on 29 March. This
was covered in the weather article in the
May Kiwifruit Journal, introducing readers to
the idea of a storm that worked like an
eggbeater.
Here is a brief summary of the main weather
events for the year ending November
2007.
During December 2006, anticyclones
lingered over Victoria and Tasmania causing
headaches for Australian fi re-fi ghters, and
seven low-pressure systems deepened
near Chatham Islands. Between these
features New Zealand has had more
southerly winds than normal so that 16 (out
of 87) climate stations had their lowest
average temperature on record. The national
December average of 13.7ºC was lowest
since the 13.4 ºC of 2004, and equal with
1946.
On Monday 18th a convergence zone over
the Bay of Plenty triggered an afternoon
downpour around Rotorua where a girl was
briefl y swept along a fl ooded drain. On the
20th, Whitianga and Whakatane had
downpours and a cold front brought a
southerly change with surface fl ooding in
Christchurch city and snow on the central
Otago hills. On the 30th, Ashburton and Mt
Somers had downpours and fl ooding. A
camping ground near Geraldine was
evacuated due to fl ooding.
January was dull. Nelson and Takaka had
their lowest January sunshine on record.
On January 2nd, a cool southerly change
brought a heavy ten-minute hailstorm to
Te Puke.
On the 14th, a frontal system stalled over
the Bay of Plenty area and brought some
slips around Rotorua.
On the 22nd, a strong northwesterly fl ow
brought the monthly high temperatures of
33.5ºC in Napier and Hastings and a warm
front caused fl ash-fl ooding which affecting
trampers near Dusky Sound.
February was very dry in many areas,
especially around Whangaparaoa, between
Taupo and Rotorua, about the Nelson coast
and over Westland and Otago. Ranfurly
reported no rain at all, and Lake Tekapo
only 0.4 mm.