WELLINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- New Zealanders in the middle and southern part of the country, including the capital city and Christchurch, were greeted by a rare "spring snow" and freezing temperatures early Tuesday morning after a warmest and wettest winter on record.
Winter 2022 was the warmest winter on record in New Zealand, surpassing winter 2021 that set the record, according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
Winter 2020 held the record prior to 2021, which means that New Zealand has now experienced three consecutive record-warm winters, each warmer than the year prior, it said.
The latest NIWA report said winter 2022 was also the first winter on record where the temperature anomaly exceeded more than 1.2 degrees Celsius for all three months of the season, relative to the 1981-2010 long-term average, it said, adding of the 10 warmest winters on record, six have occurred since 2013.
The report said the nationwide average temperature was 9.8 degrees Celsius, or 1.4 degrees Celsius above the 1981-2010 average from NIWA's seven-station temperature series which begins in 1909.
Winter 2022 was also the wettest on record based on analysis of rainfall anomalies, it said, adding the overall wet season was the culmination of numerous extreme rainfall events, which affected almost every part of the country at some point, including flooding and slips during July and August.
"Because a warmer atmosphere means water will be in its vapor state (which is fuel for rain), it is likely that the extreme rainfall events of winter 2022 were more intense because of climate change," said the report.
Last month, the Ruapehu Alpine Lifts which operated several ski resorts in the North Island announced that approximately one third of their 400-strong workforce will be made redundant as a result of little snow and low visitor numbers during the 2022 winter season.
Protect Our Winters, a non-governmental organization, said climate change is already adversely affecting outdoor industries and recreation in a way which places thousands of jobs across the country at risk. ■
