Sunniest winter and getting warmer

The Nelson-Richmond area was the place to winter this year, topping the field with 1,766 hours of sunshine so far this year and, like most of the country, it was warm.

According to Niwa, it was New Zealand’s third warmest winter on record and five of the country’s six warmest winters have occurred since 2020.

Most of the country averaged between 0.51 to 1.20 degrees Celsius above average.

Great if you don’t like the cold, but as climate scientist Gregor Marara points out, it is a sign of climate change.

“We’re just racking up these records year after year,” he says.

“Absolutely, climate change is a part of it. The seasons are getting warmer, so the chances of getting warmer winters are greater than 30, 40 or 50 years ago.”

While climate change is part of the equation for the warmer winter, Gregor says the other factor was the airflow pattern over the country which brought less southerlies that carry the cold air from the Antarctic and more easterlies and northeasterlies.

That airflow brought more rain than usual to the Nelson area which is measured at the Richmond climate station. After the dry autumn, the region’s winter rainfall was 129 per cent of normal.

Overall, Nelsonians enjoyed a benign winter compared with the extremes of some regions. In Hastings, temperatures soared to 25.7 degrees Celsius in June and at Lake Tekapo, dipped to minus 11.8 degrees in early August.