Climate

Home » New Zealand » New Zealand - Overview and History » Climate

When you visit New Zealand, the differences in seasons can easily throw you off because for this country, the warmest summer months are throughout January and February and when you get to July this has been one of the coldest months throughout the centuries.

As New Zealand lies in the Southern Hemisphere, you will find that the temperature does drastically decrease the closer you get to the southern island. On the northern island, you can expect temperatures of about 15 degrees on average and in the south the average is about 9 degrees.

New Zealand on average does generally experience a larger amount of rainfall which varies between 600 millimetres and 1500 millimetres but this figure is normally evenly spread throughout the year. The high amount of rainfall helps the farming community and makes it at ideal place to produce crops.

You will find that most parts of New Zealand end up receiving a staggering 2000 hours or more of sunshine so if you want to take advantage of the sunshine then the best places to visit are Hawke’s Bay or Nelson/Marlborough which receives more than 2300 hours per year.



Next Page: Discovery of New Zealand

Related New Zealand - Overview and History Articles