New Zealand's warmest June on record

A climate scientist says last month's weather was a mixed-bag with high temperatures the defining characteristic.

New Zealand has just recorded its warmest June since records began in 1909, Earth Sciences' latest Monthly Climate Summary has revealed.

The nationwide average temperature in June was 10.6°C, with the highest temperature of 26.0°C observed at Bromley in Christchurch on 20 June - a new record.

Earth Sciences climate scientist Gregor Macara said summer temperatures at that time of year were almost unprecedented.

He said there was another standout data point on the first and second of June in Wellington.

"The weather station at Kelburn there observed its highest ever June temperature but what really stood out was that that temperature occurred between, I think it was 2 and 3am or 2 and 4 am - so in other words it was overnight, it was dark, there was no sunlight and yet that was when it observed its highest ever June temperature, so that's pretty remarkable."

Of the six main centres, Auckland and Tauranga were the equal-warmest, Tauranga was the sunniest, Dunedin was the driest, Christchurch was the coolest, and Wellington was the wettest and least sunny, the report said.

Nelson has been the sunniest place the year so far (1410 hours), followed by New Plymouth (1386 hours), Whakatāne (1356 hours) and Richmond (1334 hours).

El Niño conditions were present in the tropical Pacific by the end of June, the report said, and sea surface temperatures around New Zealand were mostly above average.

Macara said he had been involved in producing climate summaries for 13 years, and many locations were registering temperatures at least 2°C above average for that time of year.

"By far and away we're setting far more high temperature records or near records both nationwide but also at individual locations throughout the country," he said.

"I kind of hate to admit it but I didn't find it that surprising at all it's just following the trend of what I've been observing in the time I've been at Earth Sciences."