2024 Marks New Zealand's 10th Hottest Year Recorded: NIWA
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Wellington, Jan 8 (NationPress) The year 2024 has been documented as New Zealand's 10th warmest year, with a striking eight out of the ten warmest years recorded since 2013, according to the yearly climate summary issued by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) on Wednesday.
The persistent warming trend noted both locally and globally aligns with climate change driven by human activities, primarily due to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. A statement from NIWA highlighted that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have continued to climb, exceeding 420 parts per million (ppm) at NIWA's monitoring station throughout 2024.
The average nationwide temperature for 2024, derived from NIWA's seven-station series, was 13.25 degrees Celsius, which is 0.51 degrees Celsius above the annual average recorded between 1991 and 2020. Additionally, eight months of 2024 saw temperatures significantly above or well above average.
The dominance of west-southwest winds led to a notably dry year for many northern and eastern regions of New Zealand, with some areas experiencing exceptionally low rainfall. The annual climate summary also noted several extreme rainfall incidents throughout the year, alongside four local declarations of a state of emergency.
According to GNS Science Principal Scientist Nick Cradock-Henry, global temperatures have continued their upward trajectory in 2024, following a prolonged period of exceptionally high monthly global mean temperatures, as reported by the Xinhua news agency.
New Zealand's temperatures in 2024 were 1.5 degrees Celsius above the long-term average. The trend of increasing rainfall in western regions, contrasted with hotter and generally drier conditions in the east, persists. Cradock-Henry emphasized that enhancing resilience and speeding up adaptation efforts to protect lives and livelihoods will be crucial for New Zealand's response strategy moving forward, regardless of the developments in 2025.
Professor James Renwick, who specializes in Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington, pointed out that significant flooding occurred both in the west and east at different times throughout the year, which is expected in a warming climate as the atmosphere holds more moisture.
