Gisborne Temperature by Month
Gisborne, Gisborne, New Zealand has an average annual maximum temperature of 19°C (66°F), with moderate seasonal shifts ranging from 14°C (57°F) in August to 24°C (75°F) in January. Below you'll find a full monthly breakdown and a comparison with cities worldwide.
Gisborne Monthly Temperatures
In Gisborne, seasonal changes bring about a moderate variation in temperatures. Nighttime lows range from 15°C (59°F) in January to 7°C (45°F) in August.
The chart below illustrates the average maximum day and minimum night temperatures in Gisborne by month:
The coolest part of the day is typically between 4 AM and 6 AM, while 3 PM is usually the warmest, when solar heating is at its peak. January, the city's warmest month, averages 248 hours of sunshine.
The chart below shows the average temperature throughout the year:
Daily Historical Temperatures
49-year average (1976-2025)
Average high and low temperatures for each day of the month based on long-term records.
Average temperatures in June
Historical Gisborne Temperatures: 1976-2026
Browse day-by-day temperature records for Gisborne spanning 51 years. Select any month and year to see actual high and low temperatures recorded on each day.
Temperature: Gisborne vs New Zealand
The map below shows the annual temperature across New Zealand. You can also select individual months if you want to compare a specific time of year.
very warm
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moderate
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Gisborne vs World: Temperature Compared
Gisborne's average annual maximum temperature is 19°C (66°F). To put that in context, here's how it compares to a few well-known destinations:
Barcelona, Spain has an annual average of around 21°C (70°F), with warm summers and mild, fairly short winters.
Toronto, Canada averages 13°C (55°F) annually, with cold snowy winters balanced by genuinely warm summers.
San Francisco, USA averages 19°C (66°F) annually, but with little seasonal variation — summers are often cool and foggy, winters mild.
Brisbane, Australia averages 26°C (79°F) a year, with warm winters and hot, humid summers.
What Does the Temperature Feel Like in Gisborne?
Temperature alone doesn't tell the whole story — humidity plays a big role in how warm or cold it actually feels. High humidity in summer makes the heat feel more intense, particularly once temperatures climb above 25°C. In winter, the same humidity can make cold air feel sharper than the thermometer suggests.
In Gisborne, August is the coolest month, with average highs of 15°C (59°F) and humidity around 80% — considered very high. In January, the warmest month, temperatures average 24°C (75°F) with 73% humidity — conditions that feel high. For a full picture, see our humidity page.
Climate temperature data is typically calculated as a 30-year average. This smooths out year-to-year variability and gives a more reliable picture of what a place is actually like, rather than what happened in any single unusual year.
The readings come from a range of sources — land-based weather stations, ocean buoys, ships, and satellites. That data is collected by weather services around the world, then pooled, quality-checked, and averaged to produce the climate records you see here.
Land Temperature: The average surface temperature across the Earth's land is around 14°C, but that figure hides enormous variation. In the Sahara, daytime temperatures can exceed 50°C. At the poles, averages fall below -30°C. Deserts are also notable for how quickly they cool at night — without moisture in the air to retain heat, temperatures can drop 30°C or more in just a few hours, making desert nights surprisingly cold.
Sea Temperature: The oceans average around 17°C at the surface — generally cooler than land. Because water absorbs and releases heat slowly, the sea acts as a buffer, keeping coastal climates more stable than inland areas. The deep ocean is a different story: below the sunlit upper layers, water stays near-freezing regardless of surface conditions.
Equatorial Regions: Near the equator, the sun is overhead year-round, producing consistent heat and fuelling tropical rainforests in places like the Amazon and Congo basins. Seasonal temperature variation is minimal, but these regions do experience distinct wet and dry seasons that shape their ecosystems.
Desert Regions: Desert temperatures swing wildly between seasons and even between day and night. The Sonoran Desert in North America can drop to 0°C on winter nights yet exceed 40°C on summer days. What all deserts share is very low rainfall — typically under 250mm per year.
Polar Regions: The Arctic and Antarctic experience extreme cold, with long stretches of darkness in winter and continuous daylight in summer. Arctic winter temperatures average around -30°C. In Antarctica's interior, it gets far colder — sometimes below -80°C in the coldest recorded spots.
Temperate Forests: Across North America, Europe, and East Asia, temperate forests see proper seasons — warm summers and cold winters, with average temperatures roughly between 5°C and 22°C depending on the time of year.
Mountain Regions: Temperature drops by roughly 6°C for every 1,000 metres of altitude. In ranges like the Andes or the Himalayas, that means you can move from temperate forest at lower elevations to permanent snow and ice at the peaks, all within a relatively short distance.
For more on Gisborne's weather — including monthly rainfall, sunshine hours, and humidity — visit our Gisborne climate page.
