Climate & Weather

Understanding our variable and changing climate is critical for managing resources and reducing risks.

Drought forecasting dashboard

NIWA and MPI are working together to develop a new drought forecasting tool. It uses innovative climate modelling, the latest in machine learning and other data-driven techniques to predict rainfall 35 days ahead. It will help farmers and growers better prepare for periods of dryness and drought.

Climate and weather

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    Synoptic types

    New Zealand is affected by weather systems which originate over the seas around the country, which can be characterised as 12 daily weather types.

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    ACRE Antarctica

    ACRE Antarctica is a project within the Deep South National Science Challenge.
    Antarctica

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    ACRE Pacific

    ACRE Pacific is a NIWA-led part of the the wider ACRE initiative, run by the UK Met Office.

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    PICT (Past Interpretation of Climate) tool

    The Past Interpretation of Climate Tool (PICT) is an interactive platform that "allows palaeoclimate researchers to interpret data in terms of atmospheric circulation (AC) patterns and how those patterns relate to synoptic weather types".

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    South Pacific Rainfall Atlas

    The South Pacific Rainfall Atlas (SPRAT) is a project that was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to use the NIWA rainfall database and generate rainfall anomaly maps at the station and island group level for the Pacific Islands.

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    Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation

    The Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, or IPO, is a large-scale, long period oscillation that influences climate variability over the Pacific Basin.

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    Madden-Julian Oscillation

    The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is the largest element of the intraseasonal (30-90 day) variability in the tropical atmosphere.

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    Tropical Cyclones

    Tropical cyclones are tropical storms that are characterised by a low pressure centre, strong winds, and thunderstorms that produce heavy rain.

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    South Pacific Convergence Zone

    The South Pacific Convergence Zone is a band of convergence that splits from the Intertropical Convergence Zone and Western Pacific Warm Pool at the maritime continent and extends southeast as far as the Cook Islands.

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    El Niño-Southern Oscillation

    The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (or ENSO) refers to the effects of a band of sea surface temperatures which are anomalously warm or cold in a quasi-annual cycle that develops off the Pacific coast of South America and impacts climate and weather across the tropics and subtropics.

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    NIWA's Hotspot Watch

    Hotspot
    15 January 2016
    A weekly update describing soil moisture across the country to help assess whether severely to extremely dry conditions are occurring or imminent. Regions experiencing these soil moisture deficits are deemed “hotspots”. Persistent hotspot regions have the potential to develop into drought.

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    Products and services

    A major part of Climate Present and Past is the maintenance of certain data series and providing services.