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'Bummer summer' goes out with a whimper

Author
Frances Cook,
Publish Date
Tue, 28 Feb 2017, 10:40AM
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'Bummer summer' goes out with a whimper

Author
Frances Cook,
Publish Date
Tue, 28 Feb 2017, 10:40AM

Today marks the last day of summer, but some parts of the country could be forgiven for thinking it never arrived at all.

Wellington was given the worst serving, getting rattled by the strongest winds in 14 years and almost breaking the record for lowest sunshine hours.

Meanwhile Auckland, Northland, and the Bay of Plenty have been baked under a relentless drought that left farmers and growers tearing their hair out.

Skip to the South Island, and those hoping to make a summer escape to the West Coast found it cold and wet.

The summer's been so bad that, until last weekend, Wellington was on track to beat the record for cloudiest summer on record.

But a sunny Sunday took it past the 2011-12 low of 534.2 sunshine hours.

Depending on today's weather, Wellington's now expected to hit between fourth and sixth place on the cloudy weather records.

Despite autumn being ready to hit tomorrow, WeatherWatch said the summer weather was set to continue into part of March.

The first day of March tomorrow would kick off with a large high, centred both to the east and west of the country, putting it firmly in control of New Zealand's weather, WeatherWatch said.

This means light winds, sea and lake breezes and daytime cloud build-ups, producing the odd heavy downpour for the inland upper North Island, mostly Waikato and the Bay of Plenty ranges.

The high is expected to centre over the North Island over the rest of the working week, stretching summer out that little bit longer.

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