Rain has fallen across New Zealand and, coupled with warm air, it was a positive way to kick off the first half of April. Regions that have been desperate for rain got it – or at least the catchments did.
The westerly and northern lean to the recent rain event means that some in the east have missed out on the totals they would’ve preferred, but overall this was a net gain for the country.
High pressure isn’t done with NZ yet, though. When we zoom out and look at weather systems around the planet, we can see a huge belt of high-pressure zones linking up around the southern hemisphere – in particular the Roaring Forties.
These highs look to continue feeding into the country from the west, keeping our weather mostly dry and also limiting how many cold southerlies we can get.
WeatherWatch is still forecasting the weather to be cooler than normal.
NZ’s record keeping for weather data is abysmal. Both NIWA and MetService have taken public data and commercialised it. That means that, unlike in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Japan etcetera etcetera, in NZ private outlets like WeatherWatch or AgriHQ can’t openly use this public data to help people.
The government is currently in a second independent formal review about this – after ignoring the last independent formal review by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (called Weather Permitting), which said the NZ Government is the most prohibitive in the modern world when it comes to public access to weather data the public has collectively funded.
It’s ludicrous that no political party has been able to fix this in 12 years and counting, despite none of them supporting this current set-up – especially when one review (which was ignored by Labour) already said change should happen.
In fact, that first review was created by the previous National Government and then ignored by the recent Labour Government. But in Labour’s last month in power it launched a SECOND weather review … which is now with the coalition government to do something with.
I’m definitely not holding my breath for change because, as you can see, no political party in NZ understands what is broken and why it matters so much to the rural sector. Results of the second independent review have already been stalled three months and counting.
You know that when the weather column gets political we may not have a lot of “weather” to talk about! But, as uncomfortable as it is for me to bang on about this, I feel it’s critical this issue gets sunlight.
While high pressure is dominating NZ at the moment, the tropics are looking more active, so too is the Southern Ocean. It will be the battle of the pressure systems ahead – but in the short-term high pressure will likely win.
