Weather Eye with John Maunder

Temperatures have been recorded in the Tauranga area at several sites in the last 100 years, including the current Tauranga Airport site from June 1990.

The graph below shows details of the average annual daily maximum temperatures (called simply 'afternoon'), for Tauranga for the years 1914-2016.

The long-term average afternoon temperatures for Tauranga for a calendar year is 18.6 degrees Celsius, including the cool years of 18.1 degrees Celsius in 1976, 18.1 degrees Celsius in 1992, 18.2 degrees Celsius in 1923, and 18.3 degrees Celsius in 1918.

In contrast, Tauranga's warmest years (in terms of the average afternoon temperature) are: 20.2 degrees Celsius in 2013, 20.1 degrees Celsius in 1916, 20.0 degrees Celsius in 1998, 19.9 degrees Celsius in 2010, and 19.8 degrees Celsius in 2016.

The average afternoon temperature in 2016 was 19.8 degrees Celsius, which made 2016 the fifth warmest on record.

Since 1914, there have been thirteen calendar years with an average afternoon temperature of 19.5 degrees Celsius or more. In chronological order these years are: 1914, 1915, 1916, 1928, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016..

In comparison, there have been 11 calendar years with an average afternoon temperature of 18.5 degrees Celsius or less. In chronological order these years are: 1918, 1920, 1923, 1941, 1945, 1965, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1991, and 1992.

The graph of the average afternoon temperatures for the years 1914-2014 shows generally normal variations from year to year from 1915 to the mid-1990's, followed by several years of above-average temperatures, including the last recent six 'warm” years: 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

The annual average afternoon temperature shows a warming of about 0.8 degrees Celsius during the 51 years from 1963-2013 from 19.0 degrees Celsius, compared with 18.2 degrees Celsius during the 49 years from 1914-1962.