Calculations made by a climate expert have shown that New Zealand and Auckland may have experienced their warmest year on record.
Professor Jim Salinger, a seasoned climate scientist, revealed that based on his analysis, the year ended with an average temperature record of 13.77C, or 1.16C higher than the average for 1981–2020. This surpasses 2021, which had a mean land surface temperature of 13.56C and was the warmest year on record.
His calculations were based on the common temperature series of seven stations, which he co-developed.
This series uses data from stations in Auckland, Wellington, Masterton, Nelson, Hokitika, Lincoln, and Dunedin that span more than a century’s worth of climatic records.
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Salinger also makes use of a 22-station dataset, which includes additional climate monitoring stations, and which likewise identified 2022 as the hottest year with a 1.06C increase over average temperatures. His findings across that particular dataset indicate that temperatures have risen by 1.4C since the 1870s.
Several New Zealand cities, including Kaitaia (1.53C above average), Auckland (1.48C above average), Hamilton (at Ruakura, 1.53C above average), New Plymouth (1.33C above average), Nelson (1.16C above average), Hokitika (1.59C above average), and Milford Sound (1.59C above average), also recorded their hottest years when Salinger examined the 22-station series (1.47C above average).
Salinger noted that eight of the previous ten years have been among the warmest on record for New Zealand and that this tendency is consistent with the general trend of global warming.
But he added that a combination of the effects of La Nina and the Southern Annular Mode, in addition to climate change, also contributed to the warm temperatures.
Sea surface temperatures are predicted to be 4C or more above average during a marine heatwave that is scheduled to impact the South Island’s bottom this week.
When he combined the data from the land and sea temperatures, the overall reading was 0.84C above average. Sea temperatures in the New Zealand region were similarly 0.82C above average for 2022.
Story was adapted from nzherald.
