Weather  |  8 Jan 2019

The rain gauges at Christchurch’s Botanic Gardens have confirmed that 2018 was one of the wettest years in the city’s history.

Some 875mm of rain was recorded in the Botanic Gardens, making 2018 the ninth wettest year in Christchurch since 1900.

Lush ferns in the Botanic Gardens

The ferns in the Botanic Gardens are thriving after a wetter than usual year.

And if you thought the weather patterns over the past year were a little on the topsy-turvy side, you were right.

February, which is normally one of the driest months of the year, was the wettest month of 2018 while July and August were the driest months of the year, according to the rainfall data collected at the Gardens.

Botanic Gardens director Wolfgang Bopp says the higher than usual rainfall, particularly in the warmer months, has meant the Gardens has had to use its irrigation system on a less frequent basis than usual.

“Normally we have to start irrigating about November but because we had such a wet December we are only really starting to use it now,’’ Mr Bopp says.

"As everyone would have noticed in their own gardens, everything is greener now than it is normally at this time of year.''

Niwa data released today shows that while 2018 was wetter than usual in Christchurch, it was also warmer than usual.

The mean average temperature in Christchurch was 13.9 degrees, which is 0.6 degrees above the normal average.