The weather down here in New Zealand

I'm sure the weather has been on your mind this week as much as it's been on mine.

It's been incredible seeing scenes from Texas and the terrible flooding there. We know several families who had to evacuate from the storm, including my in-laws. Thankfully, everyone is OK, though their homes have suffered some damage and my poor father-in-law slipped on a sidewalk and broke his arm. (We're thinking about you, Poppop!)

I tear up every time I watch a clip from Houston of a helicopter rescue or people working together to pull a dog out of rushing water or boaters helping stranded folks get to safety. It's such a beautiful thing, how communities respond to disaster, care and help one another in times of need. Of course, the events that pull us together are often so tragic, you have to look for the good just to bear it at all.

But all of this weather news made me think it might be interesting to talk a bit about the weather here in Auckland. (I worry, though, that once I do, you will try to move in with me. Remember, I only have room for 2 guests at a time, unless you like getting kicked in the back by the Adorable Boy all night :)

The weather here is, gosh, just about perfect.

I've said before that the city looks tropical but doesn't feel tropical. And so far, I can stand by that claim.

It's winter now, sunny and 63 degrees Fahrenheit today. The boy and I took a road trip at lunch, wound down all the windows in our junky little tan car and blasted some Led Zeppelin as we zipped down the highway. That's the kind of weather we have in winter.

In spring, the average temperature is about 65. In summer, it's 71. And in fall, it's around 65 again. (Are you searching for flights already??)

You do need to know that it rains quite a bit here. We've had some incredible sunny days the last few weeks, but when we first arrived, it rained every day for at least part of the day. The Internet tells me that from January 2017 to July 2017, it rained a total of 144 days. Out of 212. That's about 68% of the time.

The rain tends to come and go, so even a day with rain could still have quite a bit of sunshine livening it up. People here tend to keep an umbrella close by as the weather can turn pretty quickly. Unfortunately, we haven't quite adapted to this habit. And so we get wet. A lot.

But rain is about as far as it goes for precipitation. We don't get snow. We don't get hail or ice or sleet -- at least, not often. We do have flooding events every now and then, but not nearly what you see happening in Houston. One advantage we have are the hills. It's a hilly city, and the water runs down. I imagine people who live closer to the beaches and the harbours have more to fear, but our home sits fairly high up from the water. I don't see flooding being an issue for us.

Looking at Wikipedia, I see that Auckland does have a history of tornadoes -- which means I will be on the next flight home. (Mom, meet me at the airport :) OK, a little more poking around assures me that tornadoes are "relatively rare events" across the whole country. A very official-looking website says, "Auckland is hit by a tornado on average less than once per year, but there is a lot of variation from year to year, with some years seeing no tornadoes at all." Let's hope that's the Years of the Martins!

I should mention one other event New Zealand is known for: earthquakes. We have those, though they are typically small and unnoticeable. In fact, we have a lot of those. In 2016, the country as a whole experienced 32,828 quakes. 32,828. Yikes! That's a lot of earth a-shaking!

Auckland seems to fare better on the earthquake front than other parts of the country. Over the last 365 days, for instance, we've had 14 quakes, while a place like Christchurch (known for the 2011 earthquake tragedy) has had 85, including one this month.

So I guess that's the tradeoff: We get beautiful, temperate days in a tropical-ish paradise, but an earthquake might shake us right off the island one day. Eh, I guess I'll take it.

Cause did I mention the rainbows??

#Auckland #livingabroad #weather #earthquakes