Hold onto your hats: Strong wind watch in place for Mahia and Wairoa

Blue skies smile down on Havelock North's Archie Absolom, 14, while he works on his putting at Hastings Golf Club. Photo / Ian Cooper

Windswept will take on a whole new meaning as the week kicks off, with the MetService putting up a strong wind watch for northern Hawke's Bay.

Meteorologist Dan Corrigan said there was a strong wind watch in place for Hawke's Bay and Gisborne between Wairoa and Muriwai, including Mahia Peninsula, starting at 2pm on Monday, and ending at 8pm.

"Northeasterlies will turn westerlies and rain is expected to develop in the afternoon," Corrigan said.

"It's not going to rain heavily in Napier or Hastings. The rain will ease to a few showers in the evening."

For Monday, the highs were expected to be 16 degrees Celsius in Napier and 15C in Hastings, with overnight lows expected to be a couple of degrees warmer than is normal for this time of the year, he said.

"Typically the overnight low is about 4C or 5C."

Corrigan said there was a high-pressure front moving across on Monday bringing with it warmer temperatures.

The overnight low in Napier was expected to be 8C in Napier and 6C in Hastings.

Tuesday and Wednesday were expected to be fine with westerlies kicking in, he said.

"Tuesday and Wednesday will both be nice, fine days," he said.

The highs on Tuesday for Napier was expected to be 17C and 16C for Hastings, with overnight lows of 6C in Napier and 5C in Hastings, with similar temperatures on Wednesday.

"On Thursday and Friday the winds will turn northeasterly," Corrigan said.

Temperatures will once again hover around the 16C to 17C mark with overnight lows expected to be between 5C and 7C, on both Thursday and Friday.

"Hawke's Bay can expect a long run of clear, dry weather."