Climate & Weather

Across the North Island, soil moisture levels increased in many places during the past week. In the South Island, soil moisture levels generally decreased in the east and a slightly increased in the west.

Across the North Island, moderate to large increases in soil moisture levels were observed in most locations due to substantial rainfall in the past week. In the South Island, soil moisture levels increased everywhere during the past week, and significantly so in many places.

Across the North Island, soil moisture levels decreased everywhere during the past week due to meagre rainfall and above average temperatures. The most significant decreases were observed across the northern half of the North Island, where soil moisture levels are now below normal nearly everywhere from Northland to Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

Across the North Island, soil moisture levels generally decreased slightly during the past week. In the South Island, soil moisture levels decreased slightly in most locations during the past week, although slight increases were observed in coastal Otago and Southland.

This weekend, after a rather cool October, the beginning of November brings out the heat.

New Zealand’s changing ocean environment has prompted the call to develop a system that will keep closer tabs on information from scientific monitoring buoys so the data they produce can be shared as widely as possible.

Expect to hear a lot more about climate change in the news in the weeks ahead – and a lot about NIWA’s work underpinning the science that is signalling a warmer world right now and its effects in the future.

While we know that glaciers are sensitive to changes in their local climate, our understanding of exactly how mountain glaciers will respond to climate change is incomplete.

NIWA is using serious games to look at problems holistically, support understanding and give a framework for climate change adaptation decision-making.

NIWA meteorologists are keeping an eye on an unusual atmospheric phenomenon that is amassing in the polar stratosphere.

Two reports released today by NIWA and the Deep South National Science Challenge reveal new information about how many New Zealanders, how many buildings and how much infrastructure could be affected by extreme river and coastal flooding from storms and sea-level rise.

NIWA has established a network of high elevation electronic weather stations to provide a solid basis to understand seasonal patterns and long-term changes to seasonal snow and ice in alpine regions of New Zealand.