If you're thinking of heading across the ditch for the better weather, consider staying right where you are.
New research has found that by the year 2050, Auckland's climate will be equivalent to what Sydney has now - and Sydney will be more like the hot and humid Durban or Portugal.
Researchers looked at what the climate is expected to do in 520 of the world's major cities, including most of the world's capitals and urban regions with more than 1 million people. They then compared the conditions in 2050 for each city to existing conditions here in 2019.
They found each year, climates in each city are shifting towards the equator at a rate of about 20km a year.
"We notably predict that Madrid's climate in 2050 will resemble Marrakech's climate today, Stockholm will resemble Budapest, London to Barcelona, Moscow to Sofia, Seattle to San Francisco, Tokyo to Changsha," the study reads.
Wellington will be more like Auckland, Adelaide will be positively Mediterranean and visiting Edinburgh will feel like holidaying in Paris.
- Alarming climate report says 25m sea level rise on the way
- Auckland Council votes unanimously to declare a climate emergency
- Sir David Attenborough's scathing attack on climate change deniers
"The changes we found are huge," co-author Tom Crowther of ETH Zurich told National Geographic.
Twenty-two percent of the world's major cities will have climates like none found currently on Earth, including Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, with conditions swinging wildly between drought and heavy rainfall even more so than they do already.
"The fate of major tropical cities remains highly uncertain because many tropical regions will experience unprecedented climate conditions."
Auckland's mean temperature will be 17.2C, almost 2C higher than it is now. There will actually be about 5 percent less rainfall than at present and the warmest month will be about 3C hotter.
Wellington's average temperature will go from 13.1C to 15.3C, it will get considerably less rain and the warmest month will go from an average 19.7C to 24C.
"In brief, cities of the world become hotter, in particular during the winter and the summer. Wet seasons become wetter and dry season drier."
The researchers say the findings will help city planners and officials "visualise the climate futures of their respective cities, facilitating efforts to establish targeted climate response strategies". In other words, they can look to other cities in the world to see what the future holds for their own.
"Londoners, for example, can start to consider how their 2050 equivalents (eg. Barcelona today) have taken action to combat their own environmental challenges."
Beyond 2050, researchers say it's hard to tell because computer models diverge wildly from that point on - and we still don't know if world leaders are going to heed scientists' advice and dramatically curb emissions in the immediate future, as experts say is necessary.
The study was published in journal PLOS One.
Newshub.
