It was New Zealand's eighth-warmest July on record. Photo: IGOR STEVANOVIC/SCIENCE PHOTO LI
NIWA's records show July's winter weather was mild, with higher than average temperatures for most of the country.
It was New Zealand's eighth-warmest July on record, the overall temperature 9C, 0.9C above the July average since records began.
Rainfall was below normal for much of the country, but above normal for several parts of the South Island.
Climate scientist Gregor Macara said of the six main centres last month Auckland was the warmest, Christchurch was the driest and coolest, Hamilton was the wettest, Tauranga was the sunniest, and Dunedin was the least sunny.
He said July was marked by extended periods of fine and settled weather thanks to a slow-moving high pressure system.
The strength of the high pressure peaked on 10 July, when Ranfurly registered New Zealand's highest MSLP (mean sea level pressure) measurement on record - 1046.5 hPa.
"A large and slow-moving high pressure system was present over New Zealand for much of July, leading to an extended period of fine and settled weather, and regular heavy frosts for inland areas."
Macara said clear skies meant inland areas had cold nights and heavy frosts, fog and black ice.
"In some cases it wasn't just cold and frosty but foggy as well, so there were some freezing fog occurrences in inland parts of the South Island, and that caused a lot of issues with black ice and there were a number of car accidents reported as a result of those icy conditions."
For July, Waipara West recorded the highest temperature at 21.5C on 27 July, while the lowest temperature was -8.9C at Mt Cook Airport on 14 July.
Macara said the start of August had been cooler than average, but those hoping for a fresh dump of snow would have to wait - there was no forecast for snow in the next two weeks.