NZ's temperatures have risen 1C since 1931

Climate scientists say temperatures in New Zealand rose 1C between 1931 and 2008.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research scientists said yesterday that the analysis of long-term measurements from seven weather stations showing warming was backed up by other observations, including measurements from ships.

A 1995 study identified an upward trend of about 0.7C from 1900 to 1993 in night-time minimum air temperatures measured from ships over the ocean surrounding NZ.

"That trend is similar to the trend from the seven-station land network over the same period," a Niwa spokesman said.

A senior climate scientist formerly employed by Niwa, Jim Salinger, has identified from the Niwa climate archives a set of 11 stations with long records where there have been no significant changes.

Niwa said: "When the annual temperatures from all of these sites are averaged to form a temperature series for New Zealand, the best-fit linear trend is a warming of 1C from 1931 to 2008."

The institute was responding to a row - the so-called "climategate" controversy in which the private emails of climate scientists were hacked and leaked on the internet by climate-change sceptics.

- NZPA