The hottest January in New Zealand’s recorded history caused the country’s largest wine region to have its earliest ever grape harvest, a new study shows. The summer of 2017/18 was the most intense heatwave of the past century, with air and sea temperatures in New Zealand averaging about 2 degrees Celsius above normal. Brya Ingram/Stuff Dr Jim Salinger discussed the three most intense heatwaves of the century at the Marlborough Research Centre last week. Salinger and his team also revealed the 2017/18 heatwave caused the largest loss of glacier ice in the Southern Alps since 1962. A heatwave of that intensity would become more “typical of later this century”, Salinger said.

Source: Stuff July 09, 2020 02:14 UTC