Hawke's Bay's Indian summer is about to give way to the first real cool snap of the year, with just 14C forecast for the end of the weekend.
A southerly-driven low pressure system of ridges and troughs is moving slowly eastwards over the country and across the Bay and is set to carve yesterday's 28C temperatures in half by Sunday.
The front will effectively end a spell of March weather described in NIWA's climate summary for that month as "very warm".
March had been dominated by anticyclones (highs) which created average temperatures nearly 1.5 per cent above a normal March, and leading to the Bay getting only a fifth of its average rainfall for the first month of autumn.
That led to "extreme" soil moisture deficits, more than 130 mm, across much of the North Island where a declaration of total drought was announced on March 15.