Climate data and activities

We provide an overview of New Zealand climate data for use in school projects.

NIWA produces a range of climate-related data. You can see some of it below, as well as related activities.

Climate data

Overview of New Zealand climate (Climate overview, rainfall and temperature graphs and for selected locations throughout New Zealand)

Climate summaries (Annual rain, temperature, sunshine, frost and wind data for selected locations throughout New Zealand)

Mean relative humidity

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Mean number of days of ground frost

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Mean monthly sunshine (hours)

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Mean 10cm earth temperature (°C)

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Mean daily maximum temperatures (°C)

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Mean monthly temperatures (°C)

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Mean daily minimum temperature (°C)

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Mean monthly rainfall (mm)

For selected locations throughout New Zealand

Mean monthly wet-days

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Mean daily global radiation (Mj/sq m)

For selected locations throughout New Zealand, by month

Worksheets

Graphing with Microsoft Excel (Drawing bar graphs – all levels)

Escape the winter blues all year round (Interpreting, processing and communicating information – MINZC: S3.2, S3.4)

Meteorologist for a day (Calculating means – MINZC: S4.7, S5.3)

How cold is the Antarctic? (Graphing data, communication – MINZC: N4.1, S4.3, S4.5, A5.3)

What is the chance of a warm summer in Invercargill? (Simulation, interpreting graphs – MINZC: S5.6, S5.7, S5.9, S5.10, S6.8; NCEA: 90194 [1.6])

Using trigonometric functions to model climate (Transformation of trigonometric functions – MINZC: M7.1, A8.15; NCEA: 90637 [C3.3])

What's up with the weather? (Reading graphs – MINZC: S4.5, A4.3, A5.3)

Winter in Queenstown (Negative numbers, reading a graph – MINZC: N4.1, A4.3, S5.7)

Weather plots: temperature and relative humidity (Describing trends and relationships - MINZC: A5.3, S5.7, S6.6)

Climate Stuff for Students

Climate and weather FAQs, and links to other websites

Ideas for projects using climate data

Reuse

The downloadable material and worksheets available on this webpage are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Related links

  • Station details (station name, latitude, longitude, height, years of data)