Climate news

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

NIWA forecasters say a marine heatwave is forming around parts of New Zealand after sea surface temperatures (SSTs) warmed considerably last month.

In the North Island, moderate rainfall amounts of generally 25-50 mm occurred across much of Northland and Auckland during the past week, with generally 15-30 mm for much of the western North Island and the western Wellington Region. Conversely, the east coast (including Wairarapa) saw generally light rainfall amounts.

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

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 are deemed “hotspots”. Persistent hotspot regions have the potential to develop into drought.

NIWA’s South Island snow and ice monitoring stations have confirmed what many skiers have been talking about: winter has been dry and snow coverage has been poor. In fact, several sites have recorded half their typical snow depth for this time of year.

Among the multitude of New Zealand climate statistics there is one record that continues to be broken month after month.

This is one of the most extreme drought events for Auckland in modern times and similar to one experienced in 1993/94.