Weather watch: A 'little bit of everything' this weekend in Marlborough

Friday, 9 August 2019

Akira Matsushita walking his dog Sakura, which means cherry blossom in Japanese, along the Taylor River on Thursday.

The equal warmest July Blenheim has seen on record, has been followed up by a considerably cooler start to August and it's meant to continue this weekend.

There were initial reports of a 'storm' this weekend, however as Marlborough harbourmaster Luke Grogan put it, the severe weather had since been 'downgraded'.

Grogan said it did come with a reminder to residents to always check the forecast before taking their boats out.

'Check the weather, check your moorings and check everything is secure so it doesn't get blown out,' Grogan said.

Last month was the equal warmest July on record, however, the chill has well and truly kicked in now.

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Grogan said in terms of the weather, there was 'no significant risk at the moment'.

He said bad weather events could often 'cause slips and mobilise debris' so it was important for boaties to always be careful if they go out following bad weather.

Plant and Food Research Rob Agnew said so far this month, Marlborough has had five ground frosts while the whole month of August 2018 only recorded six ground frosts in total.

Marlborough harbourmaster Luke Grogan said the severe warning posed no significant risk at the moment, however, it serves as a reminder for people to always check the forecast.

'After the warm July, the first week of August 2019 has been considerably cooler with an average temperature of 7.4 degrees Celsius,' Agnew said.

'We skipped winter in July but have experienced it so far in August.'

Despite the winter cold, the number of sunshine hours was up for the first week of August, with a total of 49.3 hours of sunshine, which was 13.8 hours above average.

'Clear skies often bring cold nights and frosts,' Agnew said.

There still hadn't been any rain recorded for August, but this was set to change as NIWA meteorologist Ben Noll said Marlborough could expect 'a few passing showers' by Friday afternoon.

It's been a cold start to the month, with five ground frosts so far in Marlborough.

Noll said it looked like Marlborough was set to experience 'a bit of everything this weekend'.

'It's kind of a rough weekend to give a nice clean overview on, there's just a lot of different weather going on in Marlborough,' Noll said.

'We have a weather system in the Tasman sea that is going to drag some rain across New Zealand and that includes Marlborough.'

Noll said weather on Friday looked 'pretty mild' but northwest winds meant it would not be 'too bad'. The high for Friday was 13C.

Saturday might have a bit of rain and looked cloudy but Noll said 'it doesn't look to be the coldest of days'. The high for Saturday was 11C.

'Sunday looks like the conditions may favour somewhat drier weather, but I wouldn't promise a completely dry day,' Noll said. The high for Sunday was 15C.