Hazards

Beachgoers could be safer thanks to a new technology with the potential to give real-time updates of rip currents.

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.

Prior to 15 January, Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai was a little-known undersea South Pacific volcano with a long name. Within 24 hours, it  was a global phenomenon – the site of the largest atmospheric explosion in almost 150 years. Jessica Rowley looks at why a remote Tongan volcano took the world by storm.

Mia Blyth talks to an environmental hazard specialist who feels a very personal connection to his work.

Improvements in data and climate science mean forecasters are able to predict patterns much further ahead and in far greater detail. Melissa Bray looks at what this may mean for farmers.

A New Zealand-led team has completed the fullest investigation to date into January’s eruption of the underwater Tongan volcano.

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

Experts are warning Kiwis to be extra cautious this summer, with ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels averaging higher compared to 2021.

Specialised monitoring equipment has been installed in Bay of Plenty estuaries to understand whether our coastal wetlands can survive the threat of inevitable sea-level rise.

NIWA and Surf Life Saving New Zealand are working together to develop a state-of-the-art, rip current identification tool.

NIWA meteorologists say last week’s atmospheric river (AR), which was responsible for widespread devastation in both the North and South Islands, was a record-breaker.

Smoke from the devastating Australian wildfires impacted the atmosphere in a way that’s never been seen before.