Two out of four in the sunshine stakes
Nelson fell just short of claiming the most sunshine hours for 2024. Photo: File.
Nelson and Richmond enjoyed a sunny 2024, but fell just nine hours short of winning the ‘sunshine capital’ title which was won by Marlborough, with Tasman finishing fourth.
NIWA has done the figures and wider Nelson, which is recorded at Richmond, totaled 2,760 sunshine hours, while Tasman, recorded at Tākaka, came in at 2,665 hours, behind Tauranga’s 2,734 hours of sunshine.
If it felt warmer, you were right. Across the country it was the tenth warmest year on record – eight of those have occurred since 2013. In Tasman, temperatures ended up above average, with record December temperatures at Appleby where it reached 30.2 degrees celsius and Tākaka at 31 degrees.