NIWA Releases Data On Strange December Weather

If you thought December's weather felt like two separate months, NIWA is backing you up.

The organisation's December climate report shows that the first half of the month was defined by below-average temperatures across the country.

But in the second half of the month the temperature lifted extraordinarily - allowing places like Wanganui and Gore to make up for the cold start and surpass their normal December average.

The small Otago town of Middlemarch is being pointed to as a microcosm of New Zealand's weather in December.

The town had the second-lowest December temperature on the 1st, clocking in at a frosty minus 2.1 degrees.

But it rebounded to see the highest temperature for the month just 23 days later.

On Christmas Eve the temperature in Middlemarch reached a sweltering 32.8 degrees.

Newstalk ZB