The Climates of New Zealand

The climate of New Zealand has been described as insular or oceanic and has been classed as warm temperate. Such broad terminology fails to recognize the marked differences which actually exist between the climate of one region and another. There are local contrasts in rainfall totals, in rainfall periodicity, and temperature regimes which are particularly significant to successful land occupance, and some regional grouping of the various climatic types is clearly desirable. New Zealand is situated between latitudes 340 4' S. and 470 2' S. Australia, the nearest large land mass, is nearly a thousand miles away, so that the country is surrounded by a vast expanse of sea. The land itself has been formed along a major north-east to south-west axis, although the Auckland peninsula represents a long arm which extends in a north-westerly direction. The total land area is about the same as that of Colorado. Six states in the United States are larger. In its widest part the land is only one fifth of the total length. Thus, the whole region is, broadly speaking, in the form of a curve with the concave side facing the west. So small a land area as New Zealand has little effect upon the major circulation of the atmosphere in its vicinity. Its situation in the Pacific Ocean brings it under the influence of oceanic conditions, and its position in middle latitudes means that it is subject to the weather changes that are common in the temperate zone between the high pressure area of the subtropics and the low pressure region over the southern ocean

Archaeology · Climatology · Geography · Latitude · Peninsula · Physical geography · Temperate climate · Ecology · Geology · Oceanography · Pasture and Agricultural Systems · Science and Climate Studies · Scientific Research and Discoveries

• Contributions and perspectives from geography to the study of climate

  Open Access•Samuel Randall•Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews…•2017

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