Extreme Climate Index

The Extreme Climate Index (ECI) for Aotearoa presents measures of extreme climate events and climate variability. Climate change and extreme weather may greatly impact people’s health and wellbeing through extreme weather events such as floods, heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.

The ECI takes inspiration from early work by James Hansen in the 1990s on a “common-sense climate index” that helps improve our understanding of natural climate variability. The ECI aims to make the “signal” of extreme events visible against the “noise” of daily weather. EHINZ has partnered with Heather McLeod on her work with James Renwick (VUW) to create interactive reports and data visualisations to share this practical way of understanding climate and, hence, climate change.