Earth Sciences New Zealand meteorologists are anticipating a significant El Niño influence on weather patterns across the country from winter onwards, potentially bringing reduced rainfall for some ...

Seasonal air temperatures for May – July 2026 are about equally likely to be near average or below average in the South Island and the west of the North Island, and near average in the north and east ...

Site-specific weather forecasts for many locations around New Zealand, including a hosted forecast video Monday-Friday. Site-specific weather forecasts for New Zealand’s national parks, including many ...

Due to its position in the 'Roaring Forties', a belt of strong winds in the Southern Hemisphere which generally occur between the latitudes of 40 and 49 degrees, as well as its small size, New Zealand ...

Meteorologist Jon Tunster explains how we track changes in the tropical Pacific Ocean to predict whether there are El Niño and La Niña events on the horizon, and the impacts we might see from the El ...

Since European settlement there have been many changes in land use in New Zealand, with large forested areas having been cleared for human habitation and agriculture. Prior to colonisation, 80% of New ...

Temperature 2025 was New Zealand’s 4th-warmest year on record, based on Earth Sciences New Zealand’s seven station series which begins in 1909. Annual temperatures were above average (0.51-1.20°C ...

A New Zealand-led team has completed the fullest investigation to date into January’s eruption of the underwater Tongan volcano. Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai (HT-HH) emitted the biggest atmospheric ...

A new NIWA-led study has found that climate change increased the amount of total rainfall during Cyclone Gabrielle by 10%. This additional rain fell during the most intense parts of the storm, ...

New research led by Earth Sciences New Zealand reveals that more than 750,000 New Zealanders live in locations exposed to flooding from one-in-100-year rainfall flooding events. And this number could ...

New findings from the record-breaking Tongan volcanic eruption are “surprising and unexpected”, say scientists from New Zealand’s National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). NIWA’s ...

Our assessment of tropical cyclone (TC) activity for the coming season indicates normal to below normal activity. [Tropical cyclones are categorised in strength from 1 to 5, with 5 being most intense.