The &amp;quot;dirty weather&amp;quot; diaries of Reverend Richard Davis: insights about early colonial-era meteorology and climate variability for northern New Zealand, 1839–1851

Andrew M. Lorrey,Petra R. Chappell

doi:10.5194/cp-12-553-2016

The &quot;dirty weather&quot; diaries of Reverend Richard Davis: insights about early colonial-era meteorology and climate variability for northern New Zealand, 1839–1851

Andrew M. Lorrey, Petra R. Chappell

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-553-2016

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Abstract

Abstract. Reverend Richard Davis (1790–1863) was a colonial-era missionary stationed in the Far North of New Zealand who was a key figure in the early efforts of the Church Mission Society. He kept meticulous meteorological records for the early settlements of Waimate North and Kaikohe, and his observations are preserved in a two-volume set in the Sir George Grey Special Collections in the Auckland Central Library. The Davis diary volumes are significant because they constitute some of the earliest land-based meteorological measurements that were continually chronicled for New Zealand. The diary measurements cover nine years within the 1839–1851 time span that are broken into two parts: 1839–1844 and 1848–1851. Davis' meteorological recordings include daily 9 a.m. and noon temperatures and midday pressure measurements. Qualitative comments in the diary note prevailing wind flow, wind strength, cloud cover, climate variability impacts, bio-indicators suggestive of drought, and notes on extreme weather events. "Dirty weather" comments scattered throughout the diary describe disturbed conditions with strong winds and driving rainfall. The Davis diary entries coincide with the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA) and they indicate southerly and westerly circulation influences and cooler winter temperatures were more frequent than today. A comparison of climate field reconstructions derived from the Davis diary data and tree-ring-based winter temperature reconstructions are supported by tropical coral palaeotemperature evidence. Davis' pressure measurements were corroborated using ship log data from vessels associated with iconic Antarctic exploration voyages that were anchored in the Bay of Islands, and suggest the pressure series he recorded are robust and can be used as "station data". The Reverend Davis meteorological data are expected to make a significant contribution to the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions across the Earth (ACRE) project, which feeds the major data requirements for the longest historical reanalysis – the 20th Century Reanalysis Project (20CR). Thus these new data will help extend surface pressure-based reanalysis reconstructions of past weather covering New Zealand within the data-sparse Southern Hemisphere.

Highlights

New Zealand was one of the last places permanently settled on Earth (Wilmshurst et al, 2011) and meteorological records there do not extend back in time with regularity prior to the early 1860s (Fouhy et al, 1992)
The diary break marks a period when tumultuous activity occurred in Northland that relates to the onset of the Maori Land Wars (King, 2003), referred to as the New Zealand Wars, which were fought between the colonial government and Maori tribes over sovereignty and land
It is possible that earlier missionaries (i.e. Samuel Marsden, who resided in New Zealand from 1816), military personnel, or people involved in agriculture and viticulture could have kept similar quantitative records that are even older

Summary

Introduction

New Zealand was one of the last places permanently settled on Earth (Wilmshurst et al, 2011) and meteorological records there do not extend back in time with regularity prior to the early 1860s (Fouhy et al, 1992). The increased number of colonial settlers and supply ships arriving during the late 18th and early 19th century (Chappell and Lorrey, 2013) coincided with the earliest written accounts that documented local weather and climate conditions. These observations were often included in regular channels of communication to and from “newly found territory”, and some provide the first instrumental measurements of the physical environment. According to his memoir, written by friend and correspondent Reverend John Coleman, Reverend Richard Davis (born 18 January 1790, Dorset, England; died 28 May 1863, Waimate North, New Zealand) was associated with the Church Mission Society (CMS) of England. Davis documented social perspectives of colonial-era settlers and interactions of Europeans with Maori, as well as general activities that occurred near the settlements of Russell, Marsden Vale, Kawakawa and Paihia (Coleman, 1865)

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