What would New Zealand's climate look like if it was moved 10 degrees further south? (snowfall, warmest)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is my guess for the climate of New Zealand at 10 degrees further south... What do you think?
The countries most northern point Cape Reinga would sit slightly further south than Christchurch and would exhibit a similar climate although slightly more moderate, wet and with less sunshine due to the maritime influence and lack of mountain ranges acting as a rain barrier. More like the Chatham Islands. Climate type: Oceanic
Summer high 19°C. Winter low: 6°C. Rainfall: 1000mm over 140 days. Sunshine: 1600 hours
Auckland would experience a climate close to that of Dunedin or Belfast with more moderation due to the effects mentioned above. Climate type: Oceanic
Summer high 19°C. Winter low: 4°C. Rainfall: 1000mm over 150 days. Sunshine: 1700 hours
Hamilton due to it’s inland location would likely have a climate close to that of Invercargill however slightly more extreme due to it’s far inland location by New Zealand standards. With average summer highs 20°C Hamilton exhibits the warmest summer in the country and coldest winters in the North Island with winter mornings as cold as -10°C possible. Climate type: Oceanic
Summer high 21°C. Winter low: 0°C. Rainfall: 1150mm over 160 days. Sunshine: 1700 hours
The Capital (Wellington’s) climate would be cold but heavily moderated due to water on three sides. It’s climate would more closely resemble the Auckland Islands or Lerwick, Shetland Islands than anywhere in NZ, although with slightly larger variation and fewer rainy days. Climate type: Subpolar Oceanic
Summer high 15°C. Winter low: 3°C. Rainfall: 1400mm over 180 days. Sunshine: 1200 hours
Greymouth the largest city on the west cost of the South Island would have an extremely tough climate due to orographic precipitation caused by the Southern Alps Mountains. With no parallels in the Southern Hemisphere it is likely the climate would resemble something similar to Prince Rupert Canada or Juneau Alaska. Climate type: Subpolar Oceanic (close to the Tundra climate border)
Summer high 15°C. Winter low: -1°C. Rainfall: 24500mm over 200 days. Sunshine: 1000 hours
Now 53° South Christchurch would be at the same latitude as cities such as Punta Arenas and Ushuaia (the most southern on earth) with a similar climate. Saved the extremely number of rainy days islands at this latitude such as Macquarie experience due to the rain shadow of the Southern Alps which by now would be massively glaciated and extremely cold. Climate type: Subpolar Oceanic (close to the Tundra climate border)
Summer high 16°C. Winter low: -2°C. Rainfall: 650mm over 130 days. Sunshine: 1400 hours
Dunedin would be a degree further south than Ushuaia meaning there is no on land comparison in the Southern Hemisphere. The climate would likely feature moderate rainfall and constantly cool to cold but never extremely cold temperatures due to the moderating influence of the ocean. This climate would be comparable to Iceland despite being a full 10 degrees closer to the equator. Climate type: Tundra
Summer high 14°C. Winter low: -2°C. Rainfall: 900mm over 170 days. Sunshine: 1000 hours
Invercargill (The countries southernmost city) would gain the distinction as been the southernmost on earth at 56° degrees south (Although the southernmost town would go to Bluff slightly further south). This would put the city on similar latitudes as cities such as Dundee, Scotland or Riga, Latvia. Climate type: Tundra
Summer high 13°C. Winter low: -4°C. Rainfall: 1100mm over 190 days. Sunshine: 900 hours
10 degrees further south would cool the climate of New Zealand significantly with even northern cities like Auckland where the climate borders subtropical falling to a climate that more closely resembles the northern UK, with measurable snowfall every year. Cities such as Dunedin and Invercargill would become the worlds most southern with extremely well moderated Tundra climates similar to Iceland despite a still moderate latitude in relation to the northern hemisphere. This is due to the cooling effect of Antarctica and the frigid southern ocean.
A more intriguing topic would be, what if NZ were 10 degrees northernmost. I'd definitely want to see people tackling that. I think Auckland will be like a Sydney suburb or Newcastle. The country will be immensely improved.
NZ being 10 degrees south just isn't that interesting. It will still be oceanic, if not a bit more subpolar here and there. Still boring to me.
Point taken (I just like snow), but wouldn't 10 degrees north just effectively make the country varying levels of humid subtropical? With the northern tip almost tropical rainforest and Bluff similar to Auckland?
Point taken (I just like snow), but wouldn't 10 degrees north just effectively make the country varying levels of humid subtropical? With the northern tip almost tropical rainforest and Bluff similar to Auckland?
Yes, but isn't that a discernible difference for starters? At least a good portion of it won't be oceanic.
A 10 degrees shift to the south will pretty much turn most of NZ from oceanic to....*wait for it* oceanic. Only the very southern parts like Dunedin would be subpolar or tundra.
The only interesting conception is that maybe Alexandra would be humid continental verging on subarctic with high temperature variations....Hm...
Cool! -when I was ski mad, i was always trying to envisage NZ further south.
NZ would gain some features that it doesn't currently share with other Oceanic climates such as, large variation between winter and summer sunshine percentages. Most of the country has little difference between winter and summer percentages - my climate even has a summer month as the cloudiest, which is more typical of many subtropical climates. Sunshine/rainfall ratios would drop, and rainfall decrease yet rain days increase. A climate like mine which sees less rain days but more rain than Sydney, would probably end up with a ratio more like Melbourne.
NZ would lose it's considerable subtropical features, such as decaying cyclones from the tropics, and subtropical air masses. Vegetation such as mangrove, pandanus, palm and podocarp species, wouldn't exist. Beech forest would be the dominant species, and I think the tree line would be at sea level in the south. None of the many tropical descended costal species would exist.
Glaciers would probably reach sea level by about Wellington's latitude, although rainfall/snowfall would probably be much lower, as the relatively warm westerly air flows, combined with the warm tasman current, wouldn't exist. There would still be orographic lift on the west coast, but the rainfall totals would be lower
A more intriguing topic would be, what if NZ were 10 degrees northernmost. I'd definitely want to see people tackling that. I think Auckland will be like a Sydney suburb or Newcastle. The country will be immensely improved.
NZ being 10 degrees south just isn't that interesting. It will still be oceanic, if not a bit more subpolar here and there. Still boring to me.
If NZ was 10 degrees north, Queenstown would be a kickass climate.
Glaciers would probably reach sea level by about Wellington's latitude, although rainfall/snowfall would probably be much lower, as the relatively warm westerly air flows, combined with the warm tasman current, wouldn't exist. There would still be orographic lift on the west coast, but the rainfall totals would be lower
Are you sure about the lower rainfall/snowfall? At 50 degrees the Auckland Islands experience around 1500mm of rainfall and even on Macquarie Island at 54 degrees there is still close to 1000mm. I'd imagine that with NZs mountain ranges the rainfall would actually increase even from those numbers?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
