Weather Eye with John Maunder

During 2013, Tauranga had it warmest year since records began in 1914.

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 shows details of the average daily maximum temperatures (called simply ‘afternoon'), for Tauranga for the years 1914-2013.

The long-term average afternoon temperatures for Tauranga for a calendar year is 18.6 degrees Celsius, ranging from 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

Tauranga's warm years are: 20.2 degrees Celsius in 2013, 20.1 degrees Celsius in 1916, 20 degrees Celsius in 1998, and 19.9 degrees Celsius in 2010.

As noted above, 2013 was the warmest year on record, with an average afternoon temperature of 20.2 degrees Celsius.

Since 1914, there have been only 10 calendar years with an average afternoon temperature of 19.6 degrees Celsius or more. In chronological order these years are: 1914, 1915, 1916, 1928, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2012, and 2013.

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 1914-2013 shows generally normal variations from year to year from 1915 to the mid-1990s, followed by several years of above-average temperatures.

The average afternoon temperature shows a warming of about 0.8 degrees Celsius during the 50 years from 1963-2013 (of 19 degrees Celsius), compared with 18.2 degrees Celsius during the 50 years from 1914-1962.

For further details relating to climate matters, see: https://sites.google.com/site/climatediceandthebutterfly/