Manager at the Whangarei Visitor Information Centre (I-Site) on Tarewa Rd Cheryl Lee said news that Whangarei was on average the hottest would be used as a positive spin off for the district. “It’s definitely positive news and we’ll use it in our marketing campaign and say to people ‘hey, we are the warmest town in New Zealand’,” she said.

The highest one-off temperature in Whangarei in 2009 was recorded on January 2, 2009.

A high of 30.7C was the highest temperature of the year and the city’s third highest official measurement since 1967.

But this was well behind the hottest individual temperature in 2009 - the scorching 38C recorded at Culverden on February 8.

The lowest national temperature was a freezing -11.7 at Middlemarch on July 19. Kaitaia also recorded its highest ever number of sunshine hours in 2009 since records began in 1985. The town was bathed in a whopping 2326 hours of sun last year.

Dargaville, meanwhile, recorded its third highest sunshine hours since records began there in 1943 with the sun shining for 2067 hours.

The region was also marked by low rainfall, with the 1066mm that fell on Whangarei last year the fourth lowest total since 1937, when rainfall records began.

But the extreme weather event at Kaitaia on April 25 dumped 111mm of rain, the town’s third highest ever rainfall total.

Kaitaia also recorded its highest ever official February temperature on February 7, when the mercury hit 30.4C.

Perhaps the most spectacular weather event of last year in Northland was on June 28, when a two-hour lightning and thunderstorm hit, with hundreds of lightning strikes between 10pm and midnight.

The region was also buffeted by some strong winds last year, with a windspeed of 150km/h recorded at Cape Reinga on May 8 - the Cape’s third highest May windspeed ever.

- The Northern Advocate 14 January 2010