Ice and snow

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NIWA’s annual end-of-summer snowline survey has revealed continued loss of snow and ice for New Zealand’s famous glaciers.
Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) have returned from a six-week voyage to Antarctica.
From the lowest depths to the highest reaches, our more than 700 staff work in the most beautiful environments on Earth. The urge to capture the moment is often irresistible, so each year we celebrate our staff’s best snaps in the NIWA photography competition.
A new tool giving near real-time snow data has been made available to the public for the first time.

Latest videos

Glacier melt: A Time Capsule

Since 2016 enough ice has melted from the South Island’s Brewster Glacier to meet the drinking water needs of all New Zealanders for three years.

NIWA’s annual end-of-summer snowline survey has revealed continued loss of snow and ice for New Zealand’s famous glaciers.
Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) have returned from a six-week voyage to Antarctica.
We are two weeks into the voyage and while we have yet to enter the Ross Sea we have already seen so much! We are onboard RV Tangaroa with a team of 20 scientists and 18 crew, including a ship doctor and ice pilot, heading for the Ross Sea to study ocean physics, food web dynamics, subseafloor fluid systems and benthic ecology.
From the lowest depths to the highest reaches, our more than 700 staff work in the most beautiful environments on Earth. The urge to capture the moment is often irresistible, so each year we celebrate our staff’s best snaps in the NIWA photography competition.
A new tool giving near real-time snow data has been made available to the public for the first time.
Jessica Rowley talks to three NIWA researchers trying to piece together what’s happening to the world’s largest ice shelf.
Our highest elevation site at 2128 m, Mt Potts is also one our sites very exposed to wind.
The Upper Rakaia SIN site is located at 1752 m on a north facing slope in the Jollie Range. Records start in 2010.
The Albert Burn SIN site is located at 1280 m in the upper Albert Burn valley, east of Mt Aspiring/Tititea. Records start in 2012.
The Ivory Glacier SIN site is located at 1390 m next to Ivory Lake, west of the main divide of the Southern Alps/ Kā Tiritiri Te Moana.
An international team of climate scientists is working in North Canterbury to try to understand the reasons why giant glaciers disappeared thousands of years ago.
The annual end-of-summer snowline survey of more than 50 South Island glaciers has revealed continued loss of snow and ice. Last week, scientists from NIWA, Victoria University of Wellington, and Department of Conservation took thousands of aerial photographs of glaciers. Some of them are used to build 3D models that track ice volume changes.
NIWA scientists are doing what no others have done before. In a mysterious world just below the Antarctic ice, a delicate web of ice crystals forms a habitat that’s unique and largely unknown. Until now…
Christchurch-based environmental monitoring technicians Alec Dempster and Pieter Havelaar got way off the beaten track this week, heading to a snow-covered Mt Potts for weather station servicing in clear blue skies and some of the deepest snow they’ve ever worked in.
With the winter snowpack starting to build, who’s keeping an eye out on conditions in the mountains?
The Murchison mountains SIN station is located at 1140 m elevation in Fiordland National Park. Because of the low elevation, snow often comes and goes throughout the winter season. Snow records start in 2012.
Castle Mount electronic weather station is at 2000 m elevation on an exposed site above the Milford Track. Records here begin in 2012. Strong winds limit snow accumulation during the winter.
The Mount Larkins electronic weather station is located east of the main divide near Glenorchy and Lake Wakatipu at 1900m elevation.
Mueller Hut electronic weather station is at 1818m elevation and located in Mount Cook/Aoraki National Park. This site also measures solic precipitation and solar radiation. This is the deepest (~3m) of all the snow and ice network sites and records at this site start from 2010.
The Mount Philistine site is located at 1655m elevation on the Main Divide near Arthurs Pass and Rolleston Glacier. It is a high precipitation area and snow records here start in 2010.
Mahanga electronic weather station (EWS) is on Mount Mahanga in Tasman. It is at 1940 m elevation near the Nelson Lakes. It's our most northerly South Island site and our snow records here date back to 2009.
A NIWA scientist is asking for the help of skiers, mountaineers and alpine professionals to collect snow for a new research project.

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