Taranaki takes honours in sunshine stakes

TARANAKI is on top of the Aotearoa sunshine stakes, surging ahead of its closest rivals by 51 hours of annual rays.

The Niwa climate summary for last month shows Taranaki has clocked up 2368 hours of sunshine so far this year.

The region’s 267 hours of sun recorded last month helped to cement its first place position.

The next-sunniest places to be in New Zealand were Marlborough and Greater Nelson, sharing second place on 2317 hours each.

Hawke’s Bay – only 12 hours behind Taranaki following the October rankings – has dropped to fourth, with 2301 hours.

Niwa said last month was the warmest November on record in New Zealand, since 1909. Temperatures were 1.2 degrees Celsius above average across the North Island and in portions of the upper, western and lower South Island. The overall national temperature in November was 15.4C. The hottest (31.7C) was recorded in Hastings on November 14.

Of the six main centres, Dunedin was the sunniest place to be last month, but Tauranga was warmest.

A hot summer is also on the cards for the country, courtesy of La Nin˜ a, with good chance there will be higher temperatures recorded around Aotearoa.