Hawke’s Bay’s icy weather: Kaweka mountain range caked in snow as temperatures plummet to lowest this year

Dreams of stifling summer temperatures in Hawke’s Bay may soon become bitter autumn memories as temperatures plummet to the lowest recorded this year to date.

According to MetService meteorologist Dan Corrigan, the coldest highs and lows were recorded on two days in March: Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 30.

“The lowest temperature recorded at the Napier Airport station year to date was 4C on March 22. The lowest high was 16.4C on Saturday this weekend.”

The Kaweka Mountain Range was caked in white over the Easter weekend. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hawke’s Bay locals were also surprised when a blanket of snow appeared on top of the Kaweka Mountain Range at the weekend.

Corrigan said a showery southerly flow over the initial part of the weekend likely caused freezing levels to go down and subsequently create conditions for the white caps.

“It’s around 2000 metres and then the snow would’ve been getting to lower than the freezing level again. It tends to fall a few hundred metres before the freezing level, which is the point in the atmosphere where you go high enough to reach zero degrees.

“We had the right conditions on the mountains because that southerly flow was drifting off the Southern Ocean, and a low-pressure system could provide the precipitation.”

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The changes in temperature and the subsequent biting chill come just weeks after temperatures reached heights as high as 29C.

“For the cooler weather that came after, I guess that made it feel all that much more different,” Corrigan said.

In general, temperatures were less than the maximum daytime climate average for March, which was 21.9C.

“You’d expect to get up to at least 22C on average in March; granted, March is one of those months where we are transitioning between the seasons,” Corrigan said.

“The start of March feels a lot like summer, and then the end of March tends to get colder, so that climate average may be a bit more biased towards temperatures at the start of the month.”

Hawke's Bay has seen its fair share of wind, rain and cloud over the past couple of weeks. Photo / Paul Taylor

More could wind was earmarked for Monday, but Corrigan said it was expected to clear out over the following days.

“The winds are generally much lighter than they were over the weekend.

“We have a ridge of high pressure coming through over much of New Zealand, so things should start to look a lot more settled.”

Because of this, temperatures could “rebound a bit” to around the low 20s, Wairoa being an exception due to its exposed location and staying just below.

“The climate average for Hastings in April is 20.2C and 19.6C in Napier.”

Long story short, people may not want to put away their blankets just yet.

Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in January 2023. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community.