Northeners' perception of Dunedin as wet and cool will not be changed by Niwa's latest climate figures for the city.
Niwa released its November and spring climate summaries this week, and of the six main centres in November, Dunedin was the wettest and coolest and for all of spring it was the coolest and cloudiest.
Niwa climate scientist Georgina Griffiths said spring was characterised by lower pressures to the south and east of New Zealand and higher pressures over the Tasman Sea causing a predominantly southwest flow over the country for the season.
''This southwesterly airflow produced a somewhat cool spring for most of the country.''
This meant the nationwide average temperature in spring was 11.8degC - 0.3degC below average.
Generally for the South, temperatures were about 0.5degC below the seasonal average and it was much wetter than usual across the southern half of the South Island, she said.
Dunedin's spring was fairly normal, with a mean temperature of 10.7degC (just below Christchurch's 10.8degC) and -0.2degC below its normal.
Rainfall was 94% of normal at 157mm (above Christchurch's 132mm and below Wellington's 168mm) while 109% of normal sunshine hours of 514 was recorded (below Christchurch's 614 hours and Auckland's 529 hours).
The only near-records recorded for spring in Otago were Naseby Forest's second-lowest minimum temperature of -5.9degC on October 22 and Ranfurly's equal third-lowest minimum, also -5.9degC, on September 13.
November in Otago brought above normal rainfall of between 120% and 149% of normal but no records fell.
A near-record was Balclutha's 245 hours of sunshine - its second highest since records began in 1964.
Dunedin airport recorded its equal second-lowest November minimum temperature of -2.1degC on the 6th and Ranfurly its second-lowest at -4.7degC also on the 6th when a unseasonably cold southerly hit.
In Dunedin, November's temperature was 0.9degC below normal at 11.5degC (.1deg lower than Christchurch) but rainfall was near normal with 48mm (compared with 44mm in Christchurch and 33mm in Auckland and Wellington).
Sunshine hours were above normal at 194 hours, beating Auckland's 182 hours and just short of Hamilton's 197 hours.
