What are Climate Normals?
NIWA generates ‘Normals’ from Climate Station Observations collected as part of our Climate Station Network. These are long term (typically 30-year) statistics (averages or totals) of five parameters for a large range of station locations, calculated both on an annual and monthly level.
| Parameter | Unit | Code (Internal) |
| Total rainfall | mm | 900 |
| Mean Air Temperature | Deg C | 902 |
| Mean Daily Maximum Air Temperatures | Deg C | 903 |
| Mean Daily Minimum Air Temperatures | Deg C | 904 |
| Total Sunshine Hours | Hrs | 909 |
What is the data used for?
The data provides answers on general / typical climate conditions for locations. These are questions like:
- What is the typical annual rainfall for locations?
- What is the typical January temperature for locations?
Where can I get the data?
The data can be obtained from NIWA DataHub
Data Format
- Data is provided as text files in tabular format for viewing and downloading, essentially as 13 values for each month and an annual value.
- Naming convention for the files is [agentno]_[parameter].csv, the files are compressed as [agentno]_[parameter].csv.gz
References
- Srinivasan, R., Carey-Smith, T., Wang, L., Harper, A., Dean, S., Macara, G., Wang, R., & Stuart, S. (2024). Moving to a new normal: Analysis of shifting climate normals in New Zealand. International Journal of Climatology, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.8521
