Weather hazards

Latest news

A newly launched tool developed by NIWA and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to predict dryness and drought will help farmers and growers be better prepared for challenging weather conditions.
Beachgoers could be safer thanks to a new technology with the potential to give real-time updates of rip currents.
Mia Blyth talks to an environmental hazard specialist who feels a very personal connection to his work.
A New Zealand-led team has completed the fullest investigation to date into January’s eruption of the underwater Tongan volcano.

Latest videos

RiskScape - Making us and our environment safer from natural hazards

RiskScape is New Zealand's next generation, open source, loss modelling software developed by GNS Science and NIWA in collaboration with the Toka Tū Ake (EQC) and Catalyst IT Limited. Find out more.

The instruments at work - In the volcano's wake

Our team onboard RV Tangaroa are equipped with all the tech and tools they need to explore the undersea changes caused by the devastating volcanic eruption in Tonga earlier this year. They’ve been using a range of nifty scientific instruments to sample all matters of the ocean from the seafloor through to the water column. The line-up includes the: - DTIS (deep-towed imaging system) - Multicorer - CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) - Glider Find out what each of them do in our video. The NIWA-Nippon Foundation Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project (TESMaP) is funded by The Nippon Foundation and also supported by The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed2030 Project which aims to map the world’s ocean floor by 2030. Learn more on our website: https://niwa.co.nz/our-science/voyages/2022-tonga-post-eruption

A newly launched tool developed by NIWA and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to predict dryness and drought will help farmers and growers be better prepared for challenging weather conditions.

In the wake of Gabrielle

Cyclone Gabrielle unleashed torrential rain and record floods across Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti in the second week of February. In the days that followed, river flow experts and hazard scientists rushed to the region to capture vital data showing the full fury of the storm.
Decisions about how we adapt to sea-level rise need to be based on information about our exposure to coastal flooding, both now and in the future after a period of rising sea levels.
RiskScape - Making us and our environment safer from natural hazards

RiskScape is New Zealand's next generation, open source, loss modelling software developed by GNS Science and NIWA in collaboration with the Toka Tū Ake (EQC) and Catalyst IT Limited. Find out more.

Storm-tide red alerts are the highest high tide (also known as king tides) dates that Emergency Managers and Coastal Hazard Managers should write in their diaries and keep an eye on adverse weather (low barometric pressure, onshore winds), river levels and sea conditions (waves and swell). This page shows the 2023 dates of the highest high-tide "red alert" dates, and the lowest high-tide dates.
Beachgoers could be safer thanks to a new technology with the potential to give real-time updates of rip currents.
Mia Blyth talks to an environmental hazard specialist who feels a very personal connection to his work.
A New Zealand-led team has completed the fullest investigation to date into January’s eruption of the underwater Tongan volcano.
The My Coastal Futures game was developed to help people understand climate change impacts and start thinking about how they might adapt. It provides players with the experience of making decisions about their coastal property as the sea level rises
NIWA and Surf Life Saving New Zealand are working together to develop a state-of-the-art, rip current identification tool underpinned by artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technologies.
Climate change means more intense storm systems are on their way. Science can’t stop it raining, but it can help communities prepare for the worst and plan for the future.
The instruments at work - In the volcano's wake

Our team onboard RV Tangaroa are equipped with all the tech and tools they need to explore the undersea changes caused by the devastating volcanic eruption in Tonga earlier this year. They’ve been using a range of nifty scientific instruments to sample all matters of the ocean from the seafloor through to the water column. The line-up includes the: - DTIS (deep-towed imaging system) - Multicorer - CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) - Glider Find out what each of them do in our video. The NIWA-Nippon Foundation Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project (TESMaP) is funded by The Nippon Foundation and also supported by The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed2030 Project which aims to map the world’s ocean floor by 2030. Learn more on our website: https://niwa.co.nz/our-science/voyages/2022-tonga-post-eruption

The three-year PARTneR–2 project aims to help countries in the Pacific become more resilient to the impacts of climate-related hazards.
NIWA is asking people in flood-affected areas to contribute photos to a national database to support understanding of flood hazard and flood risk.
RiskScape is a software application for analysing natural hazard consequences.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s coastal lowlands are our flat low-lying land (or plains) adjacent to coasts and estuaries. Our coastal lowlands are valued for many reasons, including unique ecological wetlands, cultural sites of significance, valued recreational areas, highly-productive agriculture and are popular places to live.
With the winter snowpack starting to build, who’s keeping an eye out on conditions in the mountains?
Preliminary analysis by NIWA climate scientists has shown that the recent Canterbury rainfall was so extreme in some inland places that it could be expected to happen only once every 200 years.
We combine capabilities in weather, storm surge and tide forecasting with tide gauge observations to predict sea levels for specific locations under forecast weather conditions.
This five-year NIWA-led research programme is developing a system to map flood hazard consistently across the whole country. It will reveal how our flood risk might change over the next 100 years because of changes to rainfall and sea level from climate change, as well as due to land-use changes. Find out more.
New Zealanders and Pacific Island communities are on their way to having the most advanced tsunami monitoring system in the world.
NIWA’s research into forecasting weather systems aims to increase the resilience of New Zealand communities to weather-related hazards.
The NIWA and MetService assessment of named tropical cyclone (TC) activity indicates 8 to 10 named TCs could occur in the Southwest Pacific basin between November 2020 and April 2021. This seasonal outlook is for normal to below normal activity in terms of overall named cyclone systems in the region.
NIWA is using serious games to look at problems holistically, support understanding and give a framework for climate change adaptation decision-making.

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All staff working on this subject

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Principal Scientist - Marine Geology
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Hazard and Risk Analyst
Principal Scientist - Natural Hazards and Hydrodynamics
Strategy Manager - Oceans
Principal Scientist - Marine Geology
Principal Scientist - Marine Geology
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Remote Sensing Scientist
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NWP/CFD Modeller and Analyst
Coastal and Estuarine Physical Processes Scientist
Principal Scientist - Natural Hazards and Hydrodynamics
Marine Electronics Technician
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Principal Technician - Climate and Risk Applications Developer
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