Temperature Temperatures were well above average (>1.20°C above average) for Central Otago and western Tasman. Above average temperatures (0.51-1.20°C above average) were recorded for Southland, ...

A weekly update describing soil moisture patterns across the country to show where dry to extremely dry conditions are occurring or imminent. Regions experiencing significant soil moisture deficits ...

Researchers carrying out this year’s end-of-summer snowline and glacier survey saw retained snow on some glaciers, but no reversal in the overall trend of ice loss. “This year’s survey showed some ...

Probabilities are assigned in three categories: above average, near average, and below average. Temperatures are most likely to be near average (45% chance). Rainfall totals are about equally likely ...

The atmosphere is comprised of layers based on temperature. These layers are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere. A further region at about 500 km above the Earth's surface is ...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. These maps (click for full sized versions) are updated daily and are based on data from our National Climate ...

A new NIWA-led study has found that climate change increased the amount of total rainfall during Cyclone Gabrielle by 10%. This additional rain fell during the most intense parts of the storm, ...

Stories of tremendous forest fires, huge storm events, and suffocating heatwaves have dominated headlines over the past few years. We instinctively feel that our weather is getting wilder. Are we ...

A New Zealand-led team has completed the fullest investigation to date into January’s eruption of the underwater Tongan volcano. Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai (HT-HH) emitted the biggest atmospheric ...

New research led by Earth Sciences New Zealand reveals that more than 750,000 New Zealanders live in locations exposed to flooding from one-in-100-year rainfall flooding events. And this number could ...

The tables below show the probabilities (or percent chances) for each of three categories: above average, near average, and below average. In the absence of any forecast guidance there would be an ...

Temperature 2024 was New Zealand’s 10th-warmest year on record, based on NIWA’s seven station series which begins in 1909. Annual temperatures were above average (0.51-1.20°C above the annual average) ...