Severe flooding and landslides struck Wellington, New Zealand, between April 20 and 21, 2026, after 77 mm (3 inches) of rain fell in less than 1 hour, prompting evacuations across multiple suburbs and leaving one person missing. A state of emergency remains in place as saturated ground and additional rainfall maintain the risk of further flooding and landslides.
Record-breaking rainfall left at least two people dead and several others unaccounted for in parts of New Zealand on January 21, 2026. The event produced multiple rainfall records and damaging winds, marking the 20th Red Warning weather event since the alert level was introduced in May 2019.
Dunedin has recorded its wettest day of the century, with a staggering 130.8 mm (5.15 inches) of rain falling in just 24 hours between October 3 and October 4, 2024, as a moisture plume from the Tasman Sea drenched parts of New Zealand’s Otago region.
A sudden cloudburst on Monday afternoon, May 29, 2023, led to flash flooding at Waihi Beach in the western Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, resulting in evacuations and significant damage. Approximately 60 mm (2.3 inches) of rain fell during the burst, causing floodwaters to reach waist height at their peak.
A state of local emergency was declared by Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown on May 9, 2023, due to severe floods and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall. The MetService reported rain rates of 40 – 50 mm (1.6 – 1.9 inches) per hour in certain areas of Auckland, leading to significant disruption and causing over 200 weather-related emergency calls.
New Zealand’s North Island has been severely impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle over the past couple of days, with floods, landslides, and ocean swells leaving many people stranded on rooftops. The storm, which caused extensive damage to homes and infrastructure, also closed numerous roads, canceled hundreds of flights, and left about 225 000 people without power. At least 4 people have been killed.
Flood flows on the Buller River in July 2021 were the largest of any river in New Zealand in almost 100 years, NIWA measurements show. Mike O'Driscoll, NIWA Environmental Monitoring Technician, used radar to measure the speed at the surface of Buller River from…
Preliminary analysis by NIWA scientists has shown that the severe weather event in Canterbury, New Zealand, from May 29 to 31, 2021 was so extreme in some inland areas that it could be considered a "one-in-200-year" event. On May 29, extremely heavy…
Hundreds of residents in north Canterbury in New Zealand have been evacuated amid severe flooding fuelled by a one-in-100-year heavy rain over the weekend. According to NIWA, the rainfall was 200 to 400 percent of normal for the month of May, causing rivers to rise…
A state of emergency was declared in Napier, New Zealand, after up to 242.4 mm (9.5 inches) of rain triggered damaging floods, landslides, and power outages that affected more than 3 300 homes on Monday, November 9, 2020. The amount of rain that fell in a 12-hour…
