El Nino Weather for New Zealand.

Weather and climate watchers will know by now that we are in a very strong El Nino year and will be wondering what this means for local weather.
In most regions of New Zealand this means an increase in Westerly winds and as most of us live and farm on the East coast and are in the rain shadow of the Westerly mountains this increases the chance of drought. 

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The increased Westerlies in a classic El Nino year are caused by the combination of low pressure systems travelling to the South of us and a high to the North of us. 

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However for those of us who live in the very Far North of the North Island we may get a different set of weather. In our case we project into the Pacific region and with increased heat in the ocean the Hadley cell could extend further South and give us warmer and moister weather.                                                             It also puts us further into the cyclone region so, we are exposed to a greater risk of storms. Tropical storms are a very hit or miss affair, they either hit you or miss you. but for us the risk will likely be higher this summer. 

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