News

Read about the important science being undertaken at NIWA, and how it affects New Zealanders

  • Hotspot Watch 6 May 2022

    Hotspot
    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.
  • Hotspot Watch 29 April 2022

    Hotspot
    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.
  • Easy access to environmental research data

    Media release
    Identifying unknown organisms, forecasting the weather and understanding the potential impacts of a tsunami. These are all possibilities opened up by a new website that has been built to provide easy access to an enormous range of environmental research data.
  • Hotspot Watch 22 April 2022

    Hotspot
    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.
  • Hotspot Watch 14 April 2022

    Hotspot
    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.
  • Understanding why our giant glaciers disappeared in the past gives clues to the future

    Media release
    An international team of climate scientists is working in North Canterbury to try to understand the reasons why giant glaciers disappeared thousands of years ago.
  • Hotspot Watch 8 April 2022

    Hotspot
    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.
  • Taonga Species Series: Kanae

    Feature story
    What does science tell us about New Zealand mullet?
  • NIWA-Nippon Seabed Mapping Project a “rare opportunity” to study effects of Tonga eruption

    Media release
    NIWA and The Nippon Foundation are undertaking a mission to discover the undersea impacts of the recent Tongan volcanic eruption.
  • Hotspot Watch 31 March 2022

    Hotspot
    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.
  • Glaciers continue to shrink this year, says NIWA

    Media release
    The annual end-of-summer snowline survey of more than 50 South Island glaciers has revealed continued loss of snow and ice. Last week, scientists from NIWA, Victoria University of Wellington, and Department of Conservation took thousands of aerial photographs of glaciers. Some of them are used to build 3D models that track ice volume changes.
  • New national rainfall record surpasses 56-year-old record

    Media release
    This week’s torrential rains have set a new national rainfall record.