World Atmosphere & Climate Data

A glacier is a body of slow-moving ice, at least 1 hectare in area that has persisted for two decades or longer. New Zealand has 3,144 glaciers. Most are located along the Southern Alps on the South Island, although Mount Ruapehu on the North Island supports 18 glaciers. New Zealand’s large glaciers are noteworthy for their large debris cover. The exceptions, Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers, are rare examples of glaciers that terminate in a rainforest.
Glacier volume is strongly influenced by climate factors, such as temperature and precipitation, which scientists expect to be affected by the warming climate. Glacial ice is an important water resource. Changes to ice storage and melting can affect ecological and hydropower resources downstream, as well as important cultural values and tourism.
More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

This layer is the total rainfall for the year 2016, summed from interpolated daily rainfall, in mm, not the average.

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More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

This layer is the total rainfall for the year 2016, summed from interpolated daily rainfall, in mm, not the average.

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

This layer is the total rainfall for the year 2016, summed from interpolated daily rainfall, in mm, not the average.

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

DATA SOURCE: National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
[Technical report available at www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/environmental-reporti...]

Adapted by Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand to provide for environmental reporting transparency

Dataset used to develop the "Greenhouse gas concentrations" indicator [available at www.stats.govtnz/indicators/greenhouse-gas-concent...]

This lowest aggregation dataset, was used to develop two ‘Our Atmosphere and Climate’ indicators. See Statistics New Zealand indicator links for specific methodologies and state/trend datasets (see ‘Shiny App’ downloads).
1) Rainfall (www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/rainfall)
2) Extreme rainfall (a. www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/extreme-rainfall

This dataset shows daily rainfall at 30 sites across New Zealand from 1960 to 2019.

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

DATA SOURCE: National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
[Technical report available at www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/environmental-reporti...]

Adapted by Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand to provide for environmental reporting transparency

Dataset used to develop the "El Niño Southern Oscillation" indicator [available at www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/el-nino-southern-osci...]

This indicator measures the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the movement of warm equatorial water across the Pacific Ocean and the atmospheric response, using the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). The SOI measures changes in atmospheric pressures across the Pacific.

We report the monthly average and 6-month rolling average SOI from 1876 to 2019, as well as the annual average SOI for this same period alongside New Zealand’s de-trended temperature from 1909 to 2019.

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

DATA SOURCE: Ministry for the Environment

Adapted by Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand to provide for environmental reporting transparency

Dataset used to develop the "New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions" indicator [available at www.stats.govtnz/indicators/new-zealanads-greenhou...]

This indicator measures New Zealand’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO-e) units from 1990 to 2018.

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

DATA SOURCE: National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
[Technical report available at www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/environmental-reporti...]

Adapted by Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand to provide for environmental reporting transparency

Dataset used to develop the "Greenhouse gas concentrations" indicator [available at www.stats.govtnz/indicators/greenhouse-gas-concent...]

This indicator measures atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide from 1972, methane from 1989, and nitrous oxide from 1996, to 2019 from ‘clean air’ observations at Baring Head near Wellington. We report monthly averages for each greenhouse gas. Data for carbon monoxide (CO) are also provided in the dataset.

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

DATA SOURCE: National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
[Technical report available at www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/environmental-reporti...]

Adapted by Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand to provide for environmental reporting transparency

This lowest aggregation dataset, was used to develop three ‘Our Atmosphere and Climate’ indicators. See Statistics New Zealand indicator links for specific methodologies and state/trend datasets (see ‘Shiny App’ downloads).
1) Temperature (www.stats.govt.nz/ndicators/temperature)
2) First and last frost days (www.stats.govt.nz/ndicators/frost-and-warm-days)
3) Growing degree days (www.stats.govt.nz/ndicators/growing-degree-days)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Due to the size of this dataset (111 MB), a 32-bit version of Microsoft Excel will only display/download ~ 1 million rows. A DBMS, statistical or GIS application is needed to view the entire dataset.

This dataset shows two measures of temperature change in New Zealand: New Zealand’s national temperature from NIWA’s ‘seven-station’ temperature series from 1909 to 2019, and temperature at 30 sites around the country from at least 1972 to 2019. For national temperature, we report daily average, minimum and maximum temperatures. We also present New Zealand national and global temperature anomalies.

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

DATA SOURCE: National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
[Technical report available at www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/environmental-reporti...]

Adapted by Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand to provide for environmental reporting transparency

Dataset used to develop the "Drought indicator [available at www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/drought]

This indicator uses the Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), which incorporates temperature and precipitation, to measure drought events. We report on drought frequency, duration, severity, and intensity at three different time scales (short-term (3 months), medium-term (6 months) and long-term (12 months)). These different time scales are approximately equivalent to meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological drought, respectively. We do this for 30 sites across New Zealand from 1972 to 2019, and also present trends for the same period.

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.