Annual rainfall is changing

Annual rainfall is changing. The south is becoming wetter and the north and east are becoming drier. Medium-term droughts are becoming more frequent.

Many sectors of our economy rely on natural resources such as water, which depends heavily on rainfall and temperature. This includes the agricultural sector, which is particularly vulnerable to the extremes of high and low rainfall and often located on fertile floodplains, making it one of the highest-risk sectors in relation to climate change. Electricity generation is also dependent on rainfall.

The following resources provide information about rainfall, weather and climate in Aotearoa and how we know the annual rainfall is changing.

Articles

• Weather and climate

• Rainfall – Stats NZ environmental indicator

• Drought – Stats NZ environmental indicator

Media

• How is the climate changing? – video

• How do we know the data is robust? – video

Activities

• Regional weather data

• Using weather data

• Utilising Our climate, our biodiversity, our future

Diagram: Ministry for the Environment, Stats NZ, and data providers, and licensed by the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.