New Zealand Sees Warmest June on Record

July 1, 2003

Last month was the warmest June since records began more than 150 years ago, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) said today.

Mean temperatures were 2degC above normal, Niwa said in its monthly climate summary.

Above average sea surface temperatures , especially in the north and west of the country, contributed to the unusually warm June national average land temperature of 10.3degC.

That was the warmest since reliable measurements started in the 1850s, Niwa said.

Only June 1971, with a 10.2degC national average, had been anywhere near as warm.

In some inland sheltered areas of the eastern South Island mean temperatures reached more than 3degC above normal.

Rainfall in Canterbury was extremely low for much of June, while eastern Otago had record sunshine hours, Niwa said.

It was also drier than average in many other eastern regions from Gisborne to coastal Otago, while rainfall was less than 75 per cent of average in eastern Northland and much of Coromandel.

In contrast, rainfall in Nelson had been very high, and above average in all western regions from coastal Waikato to Fiordland, as well as parts of north and west Otago.

Northwesterly winds had been stronger than usual in June, with the wind patterns resulting from stronger than average anticyclones east of the North Island and depressions well southwest of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean, Niwa said.

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