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New Zealand Post is committed to sustainability and currently exploring ways to minimise its impact on the environment. This stamp issue was part of that commitment – highlighting New Zealand’s own weather extremes, which are remarkably diverse for such a small nation. Each of the stamps in this issue focused on different elements of New Zealand's weather extremes.
As the climate warms, New Zealand is expected to experience more weather extremes. They will reach into all aspects of life in this country. The first-day cover highlighted our weather extremes in one place, displaying all six stamps and their dramatic images illustrating the impact of climate change, which through warmer weather is expected to have a significant effect on our agricultural industry.
In my line of work, dairy farming, the weather plays a huge part in our business. Our milking season begins in August so it is important that we have a good spring. Too much rain and cold, the grass doesn't get away. Not enough rain and again we don't make good hay and run out of feed. Then there is flooding on the bottom flats. Windburn up on the top ridge. Cold winds during lambing. Mud, frost, rain, wind - sounds like fun doesn't it?
In my line of work, dairy farming, the weather plays a huge part in our business. Our milking season begins in August so it is important that we have a good spring. Too much rain and cold, the grass doesn't get away. Not enough rain and again we don't make good hay and run out of feed. Then there is flooding on the bottom flats. Windburn up on the top ridge. Cold winds during lambing. Mud, frost, rain, wind - sounds like fun doesn't it?
The Stamps.
50c - Drought / 1997 - 1998 El Nino Drought.
The first 50 cent stamp shows the effects of the 1997 - 1998 El Nino drought. A drought is an extended period with consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region. The United Nations estimates that an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because of drought, deforestation, and climate instability.
Drought can have a devastating impact on New Zealand’s economic well-being through its effects on our agricultural industry and the costs of lost agricultural production. Our prevailing westerly winds mean that most droughts happen in areas to the east of the main mountain ranges, with the dry air sucking the moisture out of vegetation and soil alike.
50c - Wind / March 2007 - Wyndham Street, Auckland.
The second 50 cent stamp shows pedestrians on Auckland's appropriately named Wyndham Street battling a westerly gale in March 2007. New Zealand is hit by a tropical cyclone once every eight to nine years but westerly gales are common in most regions with winds often gusting up to 120 kilometres per hour.
The mountain ranges extending the length of New Zealand provide a barrier for the westerly winds, dividing the country into dramatically different climatic regions. In some places the wind is strong enough to be harnessed to provide energy; the two largest wind farms in the Southern Hemisphere are located in the North Island’s Tararua Ranges.
$1.00 - Storm / January 2001 - Evans Bay, Wellington.
The one dollar stamp shows waves from a tropical cyclone storm surge at Evan's Bay, Wellington in 2001. The worst storms develop when the remnants of tropical cyclones approaching from the north re-intensify as they collide with strong cold fronts approaching from the south. Famous examples include 1988’s Cyclone Bola, which flooded Gisborne, 1968’s Cyclone Giselle, which sank the inter-island ferry the Wahine, and a 1936 storm that caused extensive flooding and wind damage, with buildings collapsing, trains blown off their tracks and bridges washed away.
The 'Wahine' storm in 1968 was one such example. Early on the 10th of April, two violent storms merged over Wellington, creating a single extratropical cyclone storm. The winds in Wellington were the strongest ever recorded - at one point they reached a speed of 275 kilometres per hour ripping the roofs off 98 houses in one suburb and blowing three ambulances and a truck onto their sides as they tried to go into the area to bring out injured people. The storm resulted in the capsize and sinking of the 'Wahine' - an 8,944 gross tonnage drive-on passenger ship in Wellington harbour. 53 of the 733 passengers and crew on board died.
$1.50 - Flooding / March 2007 - Hikurangi, Whangarei.
The $1.50 stamp shows stock trapped above flood water on farmland at Hikurangi, a Northland settlement in 2007. Over ten thousand homes were without power and isolated by closed roads as torrential rain and wind gusts up to 180 kilometres per hour hit the region.
Most areas of New Zealand have between 600 and 1,600 millimetres of rainfall a year, but our mountainous terrain can intensify rain 10-fold – to more than 100 millimetres in an hour. The thunderstorms bringing this rain usually only affect small areas for a short time, but they can follow one after the other over the same location, causing catastrophic flooding.
$2.00 - Snow Storm / March 2001 - Ohai, Southland.
The two dollar stamp shows a snowstorm at Ohai, Southland in May 2001. Snow is common in the south-east of the South Island, with snow falling to near sea level most winters in Southland and around Dunedin.
Snowflakes begin to develop when molecules of water attach to microscopic particles of clay or bacteria suspended in the air. At temperatures below minus 10ºC, more water molecules follow and tiny ice crystals form, growing to make a snowflake that falls as it grows larger. Most snow in New Zealand falls in the mountain areas, although the east and south of the South Island often experience snow in winter.
$2.50 - Heat / Matarangi Beach / Coromandel.
The $2.50 stamp features extreme heat. The eastern South Island records the hottest summer temperatures, mostly due to North Westerly Foehn winds generated by winds moving over the Southern Alps. A Foehn wind is a dry downslope wind which occurs in the lee of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind which results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of dry air which has dropped most of its moisture on the windward slopes. As a consequence of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes and can raise temperatures by as much as 30 degrees Celcius.
The South Island’s eastern areas have the hottest weather in New Zealand, with summer temperatures occasionally reaching 40ºC or hotter. This scorching heat can be attributed to the intense summer sunlight heating the land (which in turn heats the air) and the westerly winds blowing down from the mountains lying to the west.
First Day Cover - 5 March 2008.
First Day Cover - 5 March 2008 (Unprinted Cover).
Limited Edition.
Produced in strictly limited numbers (only 2,000) the limited edition was highly sought after by collectors worldwide. This individually numbered and authenticated limited edition included a number of unique features: a numbered miniature sheet and a special first-day cover signed by Vince Neall, Chair of the New Zealand National Committee for the International Year of Planet Earth.
It also included in-depth commentary on climate change and its impacts for us all from Erick Brenstrum, a severe weather forecaster with the MetService (New Zealand's National Meteorological Service) and author of The New Zealand Weather Book.
Technical information
| Date of issue: | 5 March 2008 |
|---|---|
| Number of stamps: | Six gummed stamps |
| Denominations and designs: | 50c (x2), $1.00, $1.50, $2.00, $2.50 |
| Stamps, first day cover and miniature sheet designed by: | Vertigo Design, Wellington |
| Printer and process: | Southern Colour Print Ltd - by offset lithography |
| Number of colours: | Four process colours plus one special colour (PMS 876) |
| Stamp size and format: | 40mm x 30mm (horizontall) |
| Paper type: | Tullis Russell 104gsm red phosphor gummed stamp paper |
| Number of stamps per sheet: | 25 |
| Perforation gauge: | 14 x 14 |
| Special blocks: | Plate/imprint blocks could be obtained by purchasing at least six stamps from a sheet. Barcode blocks were available in both A and B formats. |
| Period of sale: | These stamps remained on sale until 4 March 2009. |
Some of the images in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ
You can visit their website and Online Catalogue at, http://stampsnz.com/
Information for this post came from.