In this podcast episode, Phil Duncan from Weather Watch gives an in-depth analysis of May's weather patterns and discusses how these patterns may impact the duck shooting season.
Duncan notes the atypical weather stating, "Southland has got a southerly or southwesterly flow, a bit of cloud around tomorrow” which is in contrast with the unusual scarcity of frosts this year. He points out the persistence of high pressure from Australia, leading to drier conditions, particularly on the West Coast. This defies normal expectations for the season, which typically involves more rainfall.
Duncan touches on the public's fascination with climate phenomena like La Niña and El Niño and expresses concern over New Zealand's privatisation of weather data, which he believes obscures public understanding of these events. "The data we do have is locked away by NIWA... and we found that with Gabrielle last year when the storm came in, WeatherWatch couldn't report on what the current air pressure was, because that stuff is locked away and then it gets dripped out by them for commercial reasons."
Listen to the full chat between Phil Duncan and Dominic George above.
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