KEY POINTS:
Pack your umbrellas and gumboots away, it looks like the miserablewinter weather is finally over with settled and drier conditions ahead.
Niwa climate scientist Andrew Tait said not only were above-average temperatures predicted for spring with more anticyclonic, high-pressure weather systems likely, but rainfall was forecast to be at best below normal for much of the country.
"There also won't be so much wind on average, we're expecting it to be a bit windy but not quite as stormy as the winter."
While it was too early to make predictions for the summer, Niwa was not expecting a La Nina or El Nino weather pattern, said Dr Tait.
Meanwhile, a summary from Niwa's National Climate Centre showed many parts of the country had one of their most sodden winters yet.
Aucklanders had their umbrellas out for 22 days in July while businesses and homeowners hauled out the sandbags in parts of the Waikato, which ravaged by drought earlier this year, recorded one-and-a-half times its normal rainfall during winter.
Northland, Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty and Marlborough all experienced flooding while parts of the central plateau and Wellington had their wettest winters on record.
In the South Island, Marlborough and Canterbury recorded double their normal winter rainfall.
But despite the rainfall, the national average temperature of 8.5C was 0.2C above normal for winter with sunshine hours also up. July was generally warmer than average overall and only slightly cooler than June, despite a cold spell which saw frosts as far north as Auckland and a record July temperature of -9.1C in Waiouru.
August temperatures were near average in the North Island but below average in the South Island.
Dunedin Airport on -5C and Kaitaia at 1.5C both set records for their coldest August days between the 9th and the 11th.
THIS YEAR'S WINTER HIGHLIGHTS
* 150% of the usual rainfall in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Manawatu and Wellington
* 22 Rainy days in Auckland in July
* 166 mm of rain in one day in Paeroa, the highest for July since 1914
