Simulation of New Zealand's climate using a high‐resolution nested regional climate model

A regional climate model (RCM) for New Zealand has been developed. The RCM is embedded within a GCM and both models are run under pre‐industrial conditions. Seasonal mean output of the RCM is compared against NCEP data and the New Zealand national climate database. Regional and seasonal aspects of modelled surface temperature and precipitation are to a large extent simulated correctly. The main anomalies are related to the difficulty of incorporating New Zealand's orography appropriately and to the initial and lateral boundary conditions, which were supplied by the GCM. The largest anomalies occur over the Southern Alps, where the modelled temperatures are too low and where the amount of precipitation is too high. Many parts of the east coasts in both the North and South Island are too warm and too dry. Correlation patterns of temperature and precipitation with mean sea‐level pressure differ considerably from the equivalent patterns constructed from NCEP data, but do show in general the dominant relationships between wind direction and temperature and precipitation.