Growing degree days annual growing season averages and totals, 1972/3–2015/6

Growing degree days (GDD) measures the amount of warmth available for plant and insect growth and can be used to predict when flowers will bloom and crops and insects will mature. GDD counts the total number of degrees Celsius each day is above a threshold temperature. In this report we used 10 degrees Celsius. Increased GDD means that plants and insects reach maturity faster, provided that other conditions necessary for growth are favourable, such as sufficient moisture and nutrients. As a measure of temperature, GDD experiences short-term changes in response to climate variations, such as El Niño, and in the longer-term is affected by our warming climate.
This dataset gives the average number of GDD over growing seasons (July 1 – June 30 of the following year) for New Zealand, the North and South Islands, and for all 30 sites.
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.