New Zealand reports record wettest winter on record

WELLINGTON: New Zealand has had its warmest and wettest winter on record, scientists said Friday, after widespread flooding last month on the South Island.

New Zealand recorded its warmest winter in a row for the third year in a row since 1909 when temperature records began in 1909.

The average temperature in the United States was 9.8 degrees Celsius, which was 1.4 degrees Celsius warmer than average, according to researchers at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

Nava Fedaeff, institute scientist, said climate change is a major factor in New Zealand's temperature trend. For the first time, temperatures were more than 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than average in all three winter months.

Six of New Zealand's 10 warmest winters on record have occurred since 2013.

This winter was the wettest since 1971 when rainfall records were started.

Wild weather battered New Zealand last month, particularly on the South Island, where hundreds of homes were evacuated due to widespread flooding.

A phenomenon from the tropics known as an atmospheric river of moisture was responsible for the downpours, which saw states of emergency declared in Nelson, Tasman, the West Coast, and Marlborough.

Fedaeff said New Zealand's wettest winter is the culmination of a number of extreme rainfall events that have affected almost every part of the country at some point in the past.