Current climate: April 2017
April 2017 was characterised by higher than normal atmospheric pressure to the south and southeast of the South Island, along with lower than normal atmospheric pressure over and to the north of the North Island.
What happened in April, how our climate outlook for the previous three months turned out, global and local sea temperatures, and our outlook for May to July.
Download the PDF: NZCU 215 May 2017 [631.1KB]
April 2017 was characterised by higher than normal atmospheric pressure to the south and southeast of the South Island, along with lower than normal atmospheric pressure over and to the north of the North Island.
The tropical Pacific overall remained in an ENSO (El Niño – Southern Oscillation) neutral state (neither El Niño nor La Niña) during April 2017.
May – July 2017 temperatures are equally likely to be above average (40% chance) or near average (40% chance) for the north and west of the North Island and the north of the South Island and most likely to be near average (45% chance) for the remaining regions of New Zealand.
With the likely persistence of ENSO-neutral conditions, and the anticipated absence of other large- scale climate drivers during February-April, the atmospheric circulation around New Zealand was expected to favour only slightly more westerly to south-westerly wind flows than normal.