A warm winter, and spring's shaping up nicely too

New Zealand has had its sixth-warmest winter since records started in the 1860s, says the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

The institute's national climate summary shows the average national temperature over the winter was 9.1C, 0.7C warmer than normal and 0.1C shy of the most recent warmest winters on record in 1984 and 2000.

Auckland was the warmest, wettest and sunniest of the main centres, and the city's average winter temperature of 12C was 0.7C above average.

Wellington was also 0.7C above average, Christchurch 0.6C warmer than normal and Dunedin 0.8C above average.

Auckland had 21 per cent more sunshine hours than normal, and Dunedin had a record high 423 sunshine hours.

Rainfall was below average in all of the main centres, with Christchurch getting only 31 per cent of its winter average.

Institute scientist Dr Jim Salinger said more anti-cyclones than usual across northern New Zealand caused the fine, settled winter weather.

"It quietened things down, particularly in July and August. June was a bit stormier."

The good news is that such a pleasant winter does not necessarily mean the trade-off of a colder spring and summer.

"We could have a good summer or a poor one, but at this stage things are looking pretty mild for the spring," Dr Salinger said. The trend over the last century had been for milder winters.

"People probably notice it in things like the bulbs coming out earlier in Cornwall Park [Auckland] and things like that.

"The benefit of warmer winters is obviously that people don't have to heat to the same degree. The most worrying feature this season moving into spring is the major soil moisture deficit in Canterbury and Otago. "Those farming areas desperately need spring rain to protect them against summer drought."

Weather facts

* Amberley, in North Canterbury, recorded the highest August temperature on record - 25.4C last Wednesday.

* Middlemarch, in Central Otago, had the lowest temperature of the winter - minus 8.6C on June 16.

* Several cities and towns had their lowest winter rainfall on record, including Wellington, Lincoln (near Christchurch), Clyde (in Central Otago) and Martinborough (near Lower Hutt).

* Dargaville had its most winter sunshine hours on record, and Auckland and Mangere had their third highest.

* The strongest wind gust of the winter was 154km/h, at South West Cape, Stewart Island, on August 19.