OpenBrief
⌘K
Log in Sign up
What the picker changes
  • Top topics digest — the cards score the selected period against the prior 4 weeks.
  • 12-week heatmap & outlet matrix — show the 12 weeks ending at the selected week (they slide back with the picker, they aren’t a fixed snapshot).
  • Per-topic volume / alias drift — same 12-week trailing window, anchored on the selected period.
  • Coverage gap quadrant — scores the selected period against the 12 weeks before it (not including it).
  • Anomaly cards — only show alerts the detector fired during the selected period. Quiet weeks legitimately show none.
What stays as-is
  • Outlet orientation strip / lean colours — context-only, drawn from the last 12 weeks of activity regardless.
  • Co-occurrence graph — recent-activity anchored, not picker-driven.
  • Source & topic profiles — all-time data for the topic; the picker doesn’t affect them.
Rolling 7 days is a sliding live window for “current vibes”; switch to Weekly to compare specific weeks side-by-side.
Weekly Rolling 7 days
live window
Press topic

Drought Hotspots

2 articles · 2 aliases in press · peaked week of 17 May 2026 · first seen 3 May 2026

Unusually dry conditions, driven by persistent westerly winds, are forming drought hotspots in eastern parts of the North and South Islands, with Earth Sciences New Zealand highlighting areas at risk of developing drought.

Coverage by outlet lean Methodology →

Stacked weekly counts; colour by editorial lean. Stuff and The Spinoff lean centre-left, NZ Herald centre-right, others centre.

Alias drift

How press outlets have named this topic, week by week.

Free account Create a free account to watch this topic — get alerted when framing shifts, when an MP adopts new language, or when discourse and press diverge. Create a free account Log in

Recent headlines

Most recent 2 articles linking to this topic.

Sample framings

Up to 12 framings spread across outlets. Each framing is the LLM's one-line characterisation of the article's editorial angle — not a quote.

rnz Centre

unusually dry areas identified by science

Hotspots forming in unusually dry conditions
29 Nov
nzherald Centre-right

droughts began in winter and lasted months

Future big droughts may be worse than we think – NZ’s past shows why
18 May
Free account Create a free account to see every framing on this topic — plus alerts when framing shifts or an MP adopts new language. Create a free account Log in

Spotted something wrong on this page? Report a correction.