NIWA and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) have released a new drought forecasting tool that allows farmers to see dry spells up to a month in advance.
Summer officially begins on Thursday and while NIWA is forecasting a bit of everything, it's good news for most of the country.
Bleached farmland isn't an uncommon site during Canterbury summers.
"The old timers always say in Canterbury we're only ever seven days out away from a drought," mid-Canterbury farmer Chris Allen said.
But this summer, farmers can extend that forecast by a month as NIWA and MPI have partnered to create a pilot drought forecasting tool.
"It's combining forecasts of rainfall and forecast of evapotranspiration, and what that is is just how much water is evaporating from the soil as well as forecasts of soil moisture," NIWA meteorologist Tristan Meyers said.
It will provide people with a 35-day drought forecast.
"In the past, we've only ever looked at five days out to see what the satellite imagery and computer models can do and to go 30 days out, let's see what it can do," Allen said.
The first test is set to come in mid-December to early January with NIWA forecasting a dry spell.
Warmer than average temperatures are forecast which is driven partly by warmer sea surface temperatures.
"It's kind of like you're in a room and the bathtub is next to you and you can feel how hot it is. That's pretty much New Zealand," Meyers said.
A La Niña weather system will dominate for the third consecutive year.
"Those areas in Canterbury and Hawke's Bay that get screaming hot days in summer, they may not get as many of those because of the easterly winds, the winds coming more off the ocean," Meyers said.
Despite some parts of New Zealand expected to get heavy bursts of rain, Meyers said it does not mean people have to hold off on using the barbeque.
"It's summer it's always barbeque weather in summer."
Rain, hail or shine.
