Science Media Centre

2015 was a dry, sunny year for New Zealand, but no hotter than average overall, according to NIWA’s annual climate summary. You can access the full annual climate summary here. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology also released its 2015 climate summary last week, which showed that 2015 was the fifth warmest year on record for Australia. […]

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has declared the Pacific is in an El Niño climate pattern – but some New Zealand scientists are not ready to back the claim. The Bureau made the declaration yesterday following close analysis of ocean temperature shifts and wind patterns. The El Niño conditions typically bring warmer ocean waters in […]

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed the Pacific is in an El Niño climate pattern – what does this mean for New Zealand? The Bureau made the declaration yesterday following close analysis of ocean temperature shifts and wind patterns. The El Niño conditions typically bring warmer ocean waters in the tropics, and weaker wind […]

Heavy rainfall has caused extensive flooding across southern New South Wales and North East Victoria, forcing several communities to evacuate. Widespread, and persistent recordbreaking rainfall was recorded across southeast Australia between 27 February and 5 March 2012, leading to heavy flooding across southeast Australia.  So far, 13,000 people are reported to have been evacuated from […]

Climate  scientists interested in how El Nino/La Nina weather patterns may interact with future global warming are expected to take a close interest in the latest research using tree rings to build a picture of Northland’s climate since Polynesians discovered New Zealand. In kauri trees, El Nino periods are linked to wide tree rings, and […]

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) issued its annual report on New Zealand’s  climate today, highlighting the warmest, wettest, driest and sunniest places in 2010. The year began with a moderate El Niño, transitioning to the opposite La Niña pattern by July and strengthening through the end of 2010. Prevailing westerlies supported an […]

The World Meteorological Organization released its draft annual statement on the status of global climate today at UN climate talks (COP16) in Cancun. The statement details extreme weather trends around the globe in the past year, and says that 2010 is set to be among the warmest three years since instrumental recordings began in 1850, […]

El Niño ‘Modoki’ – a new kind of El Niño will increase with global warming Research published today in Nature has identified a new type of El Niño climate anomaly that is occurring with more and more frequency as a consequence of human-induced global warming. In the classic El Niño pattern, weak trade winds lead […]