On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.

Climate & Weather

Understanding our variable and changing climate is critical for managing resources and reducing risks.

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    How do we determine past climate?

    Information about past climate is obtained from piecing evidence together from various sources.
  • Farming and the primary sector

    Farmers are making business decisions everyday which are influenced by environmental factors. We can help farmers to improve decision-making, mitigate farm environment risk, and to become more productive, efficient, competitive and sustainable.
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    HIRDSv4 Usage

    NIWA's High Intensity Rainfall Design System (HIRDS) offers planners and engineers more certainty about the frequency of high-intensity rainfall events, enabling them to better design stormwater drainage, flood defence systems and other vital structures.
  • Waikato

    Waikato exhibits a range of climates due to the variety of landscapes in the region.
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    Map C North

    Education Resource
    As this region is sheltered by high country to the south and east, it has less wind than many other parts of New Zealand.
  • Regional modelling of New Zealand climate

    Research Project
    Developing probabilistic scenarios of expected future regional climate changes.
  • Bay of Plenty

    The topography of the North Island has a profound effect on the weather of the Bay of Plenty region.
  • Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (CCVA)

    Service
    To prepare for changes in climate, our freshwater and oceans decision-makers need information on species vulnerability to climate change.
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    Mean number of days of ground frost

    These datasets are available in a range of formats.
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    Map Chatham

    Education Resource
    Extremes of temperature are rare as the Chatham Islands are small land masses surrounded by sea.