As winter continues to roll through New Zealand and temperatures continue to drop, Phil Duncan from WeatherWatch told REX host Dominic George it's good to see some 'normal' weather patterns.
"To me, it's just good to have a healthy weather pattern that doesn't keep making the headline news for being some sort of broken which it has been this year," he said.
"We've had six months of relentless new stories to do with this phenomenal rain in the North Island or the extra warmth in the South Island."
Despite a reprieve in unusual weather patterns, Duncan said he often receives a lot of complaints when reporting 'normal weather'. He clarified that 'normal weather' just means the standard weather recorded at the relative time of year and has nothing to do with denying climate change.
"Part of that as the job of a weather forecaster is to have pretty thick skin.
"Sometimes we are a punching bag and I know Metservice feel the same way. Sometimes the frustration of knowing that you were actually pretty accurate but people picked up on a headline and they don't want to hear anymore."
In their latest Climate Watch Update, Duncan said dryer times look to be around the corner for the North Island in particular.
El Niño is currently forming in the equatorial Pacific near South America where they are seeing surface temperatures 3 or 4 degrees warmer than average.
Here in New Zealand. it is still warmer than average, which is unusual as temperatures generally tend to drop as El Niño forms.
"The atmosphere hasn't quite caught up, the sea hasn't quite got there yet but it could be any day now or it might still be another couple of months away.
"Whether it happens quickly in the next few weeks or it takes until September for us to really notice it, no one can really answer that because of our location on the planet."
Listen to the full chat between WeatherWatch's Phil Duncan and Dominic George above.
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