Researchers have created a model to reveal how climate change could combine the same weather patterns that led to a $1.3 billion drought.
The drought, that left much of the country brown over the 2012-13 summer, was the worst in 70 years in some regions, and was the result of slow-moving or "blocking" high pressure systems over the Tasman Sea and New Zealand over summer.
A new study led by Victoria University researchers measured the likelihood of extreme weather patterns occurring in modern day New Zealand compared to weather patterns in the late nineteenth century.
"We used new statistical techniques to examine the specific types of weather systems which passed over New Zealand during the 2013 summer drought," said Luke Harrison, who carried out the work alongside Professor Dave Frame.
They then used climate models to evaluate whether they were more likely to occur in the present day, when compared with the late nineteenth century.