Year of weather extremes
snow to low levels in the south and heavy rain in most areas as it swept north.
Sizzling start to summer
The cold snap was a brief interruption to a warm month with record dryness and hot temperatures rewriting the record books.
Lincoln had a 35-day dry stretch with less than 1mm of rain on any day and Orari had no rainfall at all in November for the first time in 120 years.
Cromwell had 12 consecutive days where the temperature was at 25C or above — with three of those higher than 30C — which is the most ever for November.
The year is closing on a parched note with much of the lower North Island and north Marlborough experiencing meteorological drought, including a large portion of Taranaki, coastal ManawatuWhanganui, and most of Wellington. Niwa said in addition, severe meteorological drought is in place from Manawatu District south to Kapiti Coast.
As the year comes to an end Canterbury has hit a new record going 46 days without rain and broken a 64-year-old record of continuous days without rain.
But rain did come late on Christmas night — a boon for firefighters trying to contain a destructive wildfire in tinderdry conditions near Hororata, 56km west of Christchurch.
Homes had been evacuated earlier as firefighters rushed to box in the blaze but the steady rain overnight helped lower the risk of it reigniting. Wairoa, Feb 6 Kaikoura, Aug 17 Mt Cook Airport, Jan 5 Milford Sound, Jan 31 Akitio, Feb 13 Tekapo, Jul 29 Oamaru, Jul 21 Akitio, Aug 13 Leeston, Mar 17 Cromwell, Nov 23 Middlemarch, May 22 Taranaki, Mar 11 Akitio, May 19 Mt Cook Airport , Sept 4 Hanmer Forest, Sept 18 Akitio, Nov 8