Global and Local Winds in New Zealand

           The latitude of New Zealand is 41 degrees south and the longitude is 174 degrees east. It is located in the southern hemisphere. New Zealand resides in the Ferrell Cell, which is 30-60 N & S.  They experience the Westerlies that blow from west to east. New Zealand is not located in a main pressure belt. These westerly winds are very sporadic and do not blow as often as trade winds. The subtropical highs (25-30 N & S) and subpolar low (50-60 N & S) are the closest pressure belts to New Zealand, but are still pretty far off. New Zealand is located in a special area called the Roaring Forties where these strong west-to-east air currents are mostly caused due to the fact that there are very little landmasses to serve as windbreaks.

            Being located in the Ferrell cell, New Zealand does not always have constant winds blowing.  This makes for a moderate, maritime climate and weather for the country.  The sea breezes coming from the west are also known as westerlies that blow towards the poles. New Zealand is somewhat near the subtropical high-pressure belt, but not close enough to have a lot of deserts.  The northern part of New Zealand experience more rain in the winter while the southern part experience more rainfall in the summer. There are moderate rains and still lots of hours of sunshine because the rains are only over short periods of time.

http://www.agiweb.org/education/energy/wind/index.html

New Zealand has long mountain chains extending throughout the country. Five types of breeze and winds that are associated with mountains are valley breezes, mountain breezes, katabatic winds, foehn winds, and Chinook winds.   New Zealand experiences foehn winds with dry air moving down the leeward slopes making east of the mountains dry. Also, of course it will experience the valley breezes during the day and the mountain breezes during the night because there are mountains present. New Zealand is a giant island that has coastlines on every side. Two breezes associated with coastlines are sea breezes and land breezes. New Zealand can and does experience sea breezes during the day and land breezes during the night.