May Rain Facts

Some mornings, I can tell, even before I open my eyes whether its worth getting out of bed. Its the sound of the car tyres ploughing through standing water on the road!
An eager client called very early this morning and I opened the blinds to see horizontal sleet! They were genuinely suprised when I said that the weather wasn't suitable for paragliding. I then asked if they had looked out of the window . . . they hadn't . . . and the weather forecast yesterday had said it would be sunny.

Here are some stats as reported in the Mirror by local meteorologist David Crow:

Lake Wakatipu is the highest it's been in six months. Local businesses near the water front are getting concerned.

• More than double the usual monthly average rainfall has already fallen in the Wakatipu this May, with 15.87cm already recorded. Usual rainfall for May is 7.75cm!
• In the 24 hours up to 9am Sunday 17th May, the Wakatipu had its heaviest rainfall since September 2002; 5.63cm!
• We are heading for an all-time record low sunshine hours reading this month, with just 36.7 hour recorded up until 9am Monday. The average sunshine hours reading for May is 91.7. The lowest May reading on record is 55.7 hours in 1933. Te lowest all time record was set in June 1932 with just 48.9 hours clocked up.