{"id":589537,"date":"2026-09-04T04:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/589537\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T04:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:10:11","slug":"winter-2026-is-new-zealands-third-warmest-on-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/589537\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter 2026 is New Zealand\u2019s third-warmest on record"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHowever, the exceptional warmth of June nationwide, and the relatively warm winter throughout the South Island, were the dominant features of the country\u2019s overall seasonal temperature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parts of the South Island recorded average temperatures that were more than 1.2C above their long-term averages, and 27 locations recorded their warmest winter ever.<\/p>\n

Only one winter since 2000 has been colder than average, as overall New Zealand and global temperatures continue to climb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The highest one-day maximum temperature was recorded at Bromley, near Christchurch, on June 20, when it reached a summery 26C \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s second-highest winter temperature on record.<\/p>\n

Another dozen locations, mostly in Canterbury, recorded temperatures in the mid-20s that day, because of \u201can exceptionally warm northwesterly airflow over the country\u201d, ESNZ said.<\/p>\n

This winter was also wetter than normal in the South Island, especially in Southland, Otago, southern and inland parts of Canterbury, and the West Coast.<\/p>\n

Heavy rain over July 5-9 led to three local states of emergency being declared, in Waitaki District, Kaik\u014dura and Wairoa \u2013 prompting the evacuation and displacement of more than 100 people.<\/p>\n

Sections of State Highway 1 between Ward and Waipara, in Canterbury, were eroded away by the Conway River.<\/p>\n

Conversely, most of the North Island was drier than usual.<\/p>\n

Auckland had an uncharacteristically dry and sunny winter, recording just 68% of its usual rainfall and notching up the highest number of winter sunshine hours on record.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o conditions, which typically bring drier, windier conditions to the east and north of New Zealand, strengthened from mid-winter, ESNZ said.<\/p>\n

The agency \u2013 together with overseas counterparts \u2013 is expecting the developing El Ni\u00f1o to become one of the strongest on record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHowever, the exceptional warmth of June nationwide, and the relatively warm winter throughout the South Island, were the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,185,2517,117,111,43,78751,139,69,90,1974,290218,23644,2963],"class_list":["post-589537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-is","tag-kate","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newton","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-record","tag-thirdwarmest","tag-winter","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}