Talk:2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods

Flood task force?
Is that a thing? Aubernas (talk) 10:03, 27 January 2023 (UTC)

Feedback from New Page Review process
I left the following feedback for the creator/future reviewers while reviewing this article: Thanks for writing the article! Hopefully your will create more articles! Have a good day today!

&maltese; SunDawn &maltese;   (contact)   10:46, 27 January 2023 (UTC)

Rename article
Flooding has also occurred in the regions of Northland, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty. It has closed roads in those regions and one of the missing people is actually in the Waikato region, so I propose this article get renamed to something like "2023 upper North Island floods" or "2023 North Island floods" or "2023 New Zealand floods". Maple Doctor (talk) 01:31, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Did it myself but can be reverted if needed. Maple Doctor (talk) 07:43, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

I preferred "2023 Auckland floods", which I chose to reflect the fact that extreme weather has been recorded over the entire Auckland region. But this change is okay in my opinion. Just definately not "2023 New Zealand floods". This is a pretty big country and it would insinuate it was flooding all over. Last I checked, Gore and Reefton are doing fine Aubernas (talk) 10:43, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Chart update
Can someone who knows how to (I don't) please use the data from the given reference to update the bar chart in the Background section with the rain on 1 Feb (29.0 mm) and 2 Feb (2.8 mm). Maple Doctor (talk) 18:42, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Done, but I'm not very good with graphs so anyone else is welcome to improve it. I converted the x axis to use dates rather than integers, and since bar graphs don't work with dates I changed it to a line graph. It should be easy for anyone to add addtional data points now.- gadfium 21:08, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I realised it can a bar graph if we don't interpret the x values as either integers or dates. The integers don't work because the graph sorts them, so the Feb bars appear at the left of the graph. Using 'string' means it just shows the bars in the order we give and with the value we give, no interpretation!- gadfium 21:32, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you! Maple Doctor (talk) 02:57, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

End date
When do we propose to close the date range of the event in the infobox? The weather is improving, with sunny days forecast from the 4th onwards. Shall we put the 3rd as the final date (provided the weather does in fact improve), or should we only close the date once the state of emergency in Auckland is lifted? Maple Doctor (talk) 02:56, 3 February 2023 (UTC)


 * I think we could wait until the Government or Auckland Council has lifted the state of emergency in Auckland. The state of emergency in Northland was lifted on 1 February 2023. Andykatib (talk) 11:00, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

South Island weather developments
Hi there, I was wondering whether I should mention wet weather warnings in the West Coast and Fiordland regions of the South Island. There has been some media coverage by Stuff and the Otago Daily Times. There is also a heat wave in the east coast of the South Island. The New Zealand Herald also reported on a flash flood in Roxburgh and Millers Flat in the Central Otago region in 1 February. Not sure if this is linked to that wet weather system hammering the North Island. Wanted to get other Wikipedians' advice on whether to include these South Island developments. Andykatib 09:13, 3 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I have added a brief mention of them to the article, which is all that is needed since they are unrelated events. Also, the flood in Roxburgh is from 2017. Maple Doctor (talk) 10:11, 3 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Also the weather on the west coast is pretty normal for the region and not significant. Maple Doctor (talk) 10:13, 3 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi, thanks very much for your advice and edits. Keep up the good work. Andykatib (talk) 10:29, 3 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi again, apologies for getting your username wrong in my earlier response. I made some adjustments to the paragraph after the ODT article mentioned that the thunderstorms and heatwaves in different parts of the South Island were caused by the same weather system that caused the flooding in the upper North Island. I have to admit that I'm no meteorologist but was interested given the high level of national and international media coverage of the event. Andykatib 10:52, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

Images of flooding
I think it would be good to have some images of the flooding within the Impact section, but I don't know the details around which images do or don't have copyright restrictions. Maple Doctor (talk) 22:32, 3 February 2023 (UTC)


 * In general, most photos from media websites are licensed and copyrighted. That includes most of the images on Google search. Photos taken by people on their smartphones and iPhones should be alright if you get their permission. If you take the photo yourself, then you own the copyright to it and can choose to share it under a Creative Commons license. Andykatib (talk) 00:00, 4 February 2023 (UTC)


 * What are the rules around the photos on https://www.nzfloodpics.co.nz/? Maple Doctor (talk) 01:40, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * The site says "© 2021 NIWA" at the bottom of the page. The individual photos do not appear to have any attribution. I haven't tried to sign in, so I don't know if they accept photos from the public. You could email LINZ and ask. They may be willing to put a few photos under a suitable license so Wikipedia could use them.- gadfium 02:14, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * There were some good images taken by @MonteChristoNZ on Twitter. I have contacted him asking for permission and will await a response. Maple Doctor (talk) 02:55, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Was given permission and will add them to the article shortly. Maple Doctor (talk) 04:57, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Very good! You will need to forward the permission to the Volunteer Response Team at Commons as these are not your photos. See commons:Commons:Volunteer Response Team. I have added the two photos you put on the article to commons:Category:2023 North Island floods, and I notice that there are several other photos there already.- gadfium 05:55, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * The page you linked says that the copyright holder is the one who needs to send the email. I don't really want to hassle and annoy them through all the processes. If you know a way that only requires me to send a screenshot of the permission then that would be nice. Maple Doctor (talk) 06:31, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * If you have an email from them, forward it. If they tweeted, send the tweet id. If it's something else, email the Volunteer Response Team. I have no experience of doing this myself.- gadfium 08:08, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

End date as Cyclone Gabrielle approaches
Cyclone Gabrielle is currently forecast to impact the North Island next week and centres are already making preparations. States of emergency currently in place are likely to be extended through the cyclone, and the cyclone will probably get its own Wikipedia page. I propose we put a close date on this event to separate it from Cyclone Gabrielle. I think a good date would be 6 February, as that was the last date the country experienced any severe weather, updating the infobox to be 27 Jan - 6 Feb. Maple Doctor (talk) 02:51, 9 February 2023 (UTC)
 * And on the same note, the warning at the top of the article regarding it being a current event can probably be removed now too. Maple Doctor (talk) 04:14, 9 February 2023 (UTC)
 * No one responded so I did it myself. Maple Doctor (talk) 05:21, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Page for Cyclone Gabrielle now up. ShakyIsles (talk) 22:11, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

Page Name - North Island floods?
Well the title refers to "North Island floods" which could refer to the floods from Cyclone Gabrielle too, which looks to be as big in New Zealand as Cyclone Hale! So what would a seperate article be called - Febbruary 2023 North Island floods? Or incorporate into this article? Hugo999 (talk) 06:41, 25 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Hence why we have the disambiguation info at the top of the article. Gabrielle already has its own article as it is a separate event. Maple Doctor (talk) 04:51, 28 February 2023 (UTC)
 * More recently they seem to be being consitantly described as the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods or just Auckland Anniversary floods. See example: ShakyIsles (talk) 20:20, 9 March 2023 (UTC)
 * I would support a name change to something like 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods, as that is what the ICNZ is officially calling the event . There is precedent for an article title such as that with the article for the 1985 Election Day floods. Maple Doctor (talk) 04:35, 20 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Moving to 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods seems uncontroversial and removes any confusion. Unless anyone objects, I will move it in a couple of days. ShakyIsles (talk) 01:35, 22 March 2023 (UTC)