Weather Eye with John Maunder

Temperatures have been recorded in the Tauranga area at several sites during 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 months of March from 1915-2014. March 1947 is not included because of incomplete data.

The long-term average afternoon temperature in March for Tauranga is 22.5 degrees Celsius, ranging from the cool March months of 1960 with an average afternoon temperature of 20.4 degrees Celsius, and 1940 with an average afternoon temperature of 20.8 degrees Celsius, to the warm March months of 1916 (24.7 degrees Celsius), and 1938 and 1968 (24.6 degrees Celsius).

The graph of the average afternoon temperatures for March shows generally normal variations from March to March.

From 1915 to 2014, there have been five March months with an average afternoon temperature of 24 degrees Celsius or more, and 10 March months with an average afternoon temperature of 21.5 degrees Celsius or less.

The five warmest March months – in terms of average afternoon temperatures on record –in chronological order are: 1916, 1938, 1968, 2010 and 2013.

In contrast the 10 coolest March months – in terms of afternoon temperatures on record –in chronological order are: 1936, 1940, 1945, 1949, 1960, 1974, 1976, 1992, 1993 and 1998.

The average afternoon temperature for March for the 48 years from 1914-1962 was 22.4 degrees Celsius, compared with an average of 22.6 degrees Celsius for the 48 years from 1963-2011.

For further information about the weather and climate of Tauranga, including all 60 Weather Eyes published on SunLive, see: https://sites.google.com/site/theweatherclimateeye/