Fall Weather in Darfield New Zealand

Daily high temperatures decrease by 16°F, from 69°F to 53°F, rarely falling below 45°F or exceeding 78°F.

Daily low temperatures decrease by 14°F, from 50°F to 36°F, rarely falling below 28°F or exceeding 58°F.

For reference, on January 27, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Darfield typically range from 52°F to 71°F, while on June 30, the coldest day of the year, they range from 33°F to 49°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average fall temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Puyehue, Chile (5,373 miles away); Tafí del Valle, Argentina (6,359 miles); and Abadín, Spain (12,429 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Darfield (view comparison).

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The fall in Darfield experiences increasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy increasing from 41% to 50%. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 41% on March 4.

The clearest day of the fall is March 4, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 59% of the time.

For reference, on December 12, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 51%, while on March 4, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 59%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Darfield, the chance of a wet day over the course of the fall is increasing, starting the season at 30% and ending it at 34%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 39% on October 2, and its lowest chance is 26% on February 11.

Over the course of the fall in Darfield, the chance of a day with only rain increases from 30% to 33%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain remains an essentially constant 1% throughout, and the chance of a day with only snow remains an essentially constant 0% throughout.

Rainfall

To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the fall in Darfield is essentially constant, remaining about 2.7 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 5.0 inches or falling below 1.0 inches.

The lowest average 31-day accumulation is 2.5 inches on March 28.

Over the course of the fall in Darfield, the length of the day is very rapidly decreasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day decreases by 3 hours, 56 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 2 minutes, 35 seconds, and weekly decrease of 18 minutes, 7 seconds.

The shortest day of the fall is May 31, with 9 hours, 11 minutes of daylight and the longest day is March 1, with 13 hours, 6 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the fall in Darfield is 7:54 AM on April 6 and the earliest sunrise is 59 minutes earlier at 6:55 AM on April 7.

The latest sunset is 8:16 PM on March 1 and the earliest sunset is 3 hours, 12 minutes earlier at 5:04 PM on May 31.

Daylight saving time (DST) starts at 2:00 AM on April 7, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour later.

For reference, on December 21, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:46 AM and sets 15 hours, 26 minutes later, at 9:12 PM, while on June 20, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 8:04 AM and sets 8 hours, 57 minutes later, at 5:01 PM.

The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the fall of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy in Darfield is essentially constant during the fall, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on January 26, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on March 28, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed in Darfield is gradually decreasing during the fall, decreasing from 8.9 miles per hour to 8.4 miles per hour over the course of the season.

For reference, on January 7, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 10.0 miles per hour, while on April 24, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.9 miles per hour.

The lowest daily average wind speed during the fall is 7.9 miles per hour on April 24.

The wind direction in Darfield during the fall is predominantly out of the north from March 1 to March 17 and the west from March 17 to May 31.

Darfield is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water.

The average surface water temperature in Darfield is rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 9°F, from 62°F to 53°F, over the course of the season.

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season in Darfield typically lasts for 6.0 months (181 days), from around October 23 to around April 21, rarely starting before September 20 or after November 28, and rarely ending before March 26 or after May 16.

During the fall in Darfield, the chance that a given day is within the growing season is very rapidly decreasing falling from 99% to 2% over the course of the season.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days in Darfield are increasing during the fall, increasing by 394°F, from 1,259°F to 1,653°F, over the course of the season.

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Darfield is very rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 3.9 kWh, from 5.5 kWh to 1.6 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Darfield are -43.483 deg latitude, 172.117 deg longitude, and 669 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Darfield contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 246 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 674 feet. Within 10 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (1,568 feet). Within 50 miles contains very significant variations in elevation (7,687 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Darfield is covered by cropland (54%), grassland (25%), and trees (17%), within 10 miles by cropland (40%) and trees (30%), and within 50 miles by grassland (35%) and water (30%).