Oceania Atmosphere & Climate Data

Annual rainfall is the total accumulated rain over one year. Rain is vital for life, including plant growth, drinking water, river ecosystem health, and sanitation. Floods and droughts affect our environment, economy, and recreational opportunities.

This dataset shows annual average rainfall across New Zealand for years 1972 to 2013. Annual rainfall is estimated from the daily rainfall estimates of the Virtual Climate Station Network (NIWA).

This dataset relates to the "Annual average rainfall" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Geometry: raster catalogue
Unit: mm/yr

"Annual rainfall is the total accumulated rain over one year. Rain is vital for life, including plant growth, drinking water, river ecosystem health, and sanitation. Floods and droughts affect our environment, economy, and recreational opportunities.

This dataset shows annual average rainfall across New Zealand for 2013 as part of the data series for years 1972 to 2013. Annual rainfall is estimated from the daily rainfall estimates of the Virtual Climate Station Network (NIWA).

This dataset relates to the "Annual average rainfall" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Geometry: grid
Unit: mm/yr"

Soil moisture is important for plant growth. A lack of moisture content over a growing season is a good indicator of drought, which can have social, environmental, and economic impacts. Increasing temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of drought in many regions. Growing season soil moisture deficits are estimated by the potential evapotranspiration deficit, the difference between rainfall and evapotranspiration.

This dataset shows annual average soil moisture (potential evapotranspiration deficit (PED)) across New Zealand for years 1972 to 2014.

Evapotranspiration is the loss of water by evaporation and plant transpiration. PED is the difference between estimated evapotranspiration and rainfall.

We produced maps of the annual PED total (in millimetres) for every growing season (calculated as July–June years) from 1972 to 2013. Care should be taken when comparing maps from year to year – days may be missing from the PED GIS data, and data may have been interpolated to complete the dataset. The interpolation accuracy is lowest in areas of high elevation, where there are fewer climate stations and complex terrain affects accuracy. Climate stations may also open and close, affecting the accuracy of the data provided.

This dataset relates to the "Soil moisture and drought" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Geometry: raster catalogue
Unit: mm/yr

Lightning is the discharge of electricity from thunderstorms. Ground strikes can cause significant damage to property and infrastructure, and injure or kill people and livestock. Lightning is often associated with other severe weather events, such as strong wind gusts. Thunderstorms may increase in frequency and intensity with climate change.
This dataset relates to the "Lightning" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

"Sunshine is important for our health and recreation, and for the environment. It is also important for our agriculture-based economy, for example, for plant growth.

This layer shows annual sunshine hours across New Zealand for 2013 as part of the data series for years 1972 to 2013.
Data is for a calendar year (January-December).

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) mapped mean annual sunshine hours from the virtual climate station network data (NIWA) generated from data in its National Climate Database, for the period 1981–2013. It generated the Units: percentage of normal by comparing the annual average to the long-term mean for 1981–2010. Maps were produced using the Virtual Climate Station network data. Data for each year are measured over the calendar year (January–December).

The accuracy of the data source is of high quality.

This dataset relates to the ""Sunshine hours in New Zealand"" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Geometry: grid
Unit: hrs/yr"

Lightning is the discharge of electricity, from thunderstorms, that equalises areas of positive and negative charge, for example, between a storm cloud and the ground. Thunderstorms form as a result of rapidly rising air with a high moisture content (humidity). On average, 1 in 10 lightning discharges strikes the ground (or sea) (Metservice, 2015). Lightning (and therefore thunderstorms) are also often associated with other severe weather events, such as strong wind gusts, and in extreme cases tornadoes.

By international standards, lightning does not occur frequently around New Zealand. However, thunderstorms, and thus lightning, can cause injury and damage (Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, 2010), and may increase in frequency and intensity with climate change (Mullen et. al., 2011).

This data shows the average annual number of lightning strikes per 25km square.

This dataset relates to the "Lightning" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Geometry: grid/point

Unit: strikes/25km2/year

Further information can be found in:

MetService (nd). Lightning observation services. Accessed 3 June 2015 from www.metservice.com.

Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (2010). Thunderstorms. Working from the same page: Consistent messages for CDEM (p3). Available from www.civildefence.govt.nz.

Mullan, B, Carey-Smith, T, Griffiths, G, & Sood, A (2011). Scenarios of storminess and regional wind extremes under climate change. NIWA Client Report: WLG2010-31 (pvii). Available from www.niwa.co.nz.

"Sunshine is important for our health and recreation, and for the environment. It is also important for our agriculture-based economy, for example, for plant growth.

This dataset shows average annual sunshine hours across New Zealand for years 1972 to 2013.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) mapped mean annual sunshine hours from the virtual climate station network data (NIWA) generated from data in its National Climate Database, for the period 1981–2013. It generated the Units: percentage of normal by comparing the annual average to the long-term mean for 1981–2010. Maps were produced using the Virtual Climate Station network data. Data for each year are measured over the calendar year (January–December).

The accuracy of the data source is of high quality.

This dataset relates to the ""Sunshine hours in New Zealand"" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Geometry: grid
Unit: hrs/yr"

"Annual rainfall is the total accumulated rain over one year. Rain is vital for life, including plant growth, drinking water, river ecosystem health, and sanitation. Floods and droughts affect our environment, economy, and recreational opportunities.

This dataset shows annual average rainfall across New Zealand for 2000 as part of the data series for years 1972 to 2013. Annual rainfall is estimated from the daily rainfall estimates of the Virtual Climate Station Network (NIWA).

This dataset relates to the "Annual average rainfall" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Geometry: grid
Unit: mm/yr"

Soil moisture is important for plant growth. A lack of moisture content over a growing season is a good indicator of drought, which can have social, environmental, and economic impacts. Increasing temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of drought in many regions. Growing season soil moisture deficits are estimated by the potential evapotranspiration deficit, the difference between rainfall and evapotranspiration.

This layer shows the standardised annual soil moisture (potential evapotranspiration deficit (PED)) across New Zealand for 2013 as part of the data series for years 1972 to 2013.

Evapotranspiration is the loss of water by evaporation and plant transpiration. PED is the difference between estimated evapotranspiration and rainfall.

We produced maps of the standardised annual PED (the departure from the 1981–2010 average, divided by the 1981–2010 standard deviation) were produced for every growing season (calculated as July–June years) from 1972 to 2013.

Care should be taken when comparing maps from year to year – days may be missing from the PED GIS data, and data may have been interpolated to complete the dataset. The interpolation accuracy is lowest in areas of high elevation, where there are fewer climate stations and complex terrain affects accuracy. Climate stations may also open and close, affecting the accuracy of the data provided.

This dataset relates to the "Soil moisture and drought" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

"Annual rainfall is the total accumulated rain over one year. Rain is vital for life, including plant growth, drinking water, river ecosystem health, and sanitation. Floods and droughts affect our environment, economy, and recreational opportunities.

This dataset shows annual average rainfall across New Zealand for 2010 as part of the data series for years 1972 to 2013. Annual rainfall is estimated from the daily rainfall estimates of the Virtual Climate Station Network (NIWA).

This dataset relates to the "Annual average rainfall" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Geometry: grid
Unit: mm/yr"