Hot period to pass without extremes

Horticulture contractors weeding in 30C heat at a Flaxmere property yesterday. Photo / Duncan Brown

Temperatures soared over 30C in some parts of Hawke's Bay yesterday for the first time in over five weeks but showed little sign of reaching the historic highs of exactly two years earlier.

The regional high was 31C in Wairoa late in the afternoon, the maximum in Hastings was 30C, and an unofficial reading of 34C was reported in Taradale, but it was not on an official MetService recording station.

Temperatures are now expected to drop heading to rain over much of the country late in the week, meaning one of the traditionally hottest periods of the Hawke's Bay summer has passed without some of the extremes of the past.

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the hottest day in Hawke's Bay since the year 2000, the official high in the region on January 11, 2013 having been 35.2C in Wairoa, on a day when temperatures well over 30C were common throughout most of the Bay, including 34.5C in Hastings, 33C in Waipukurau, and 32.9C in Napier.

The record maximum temperature in New Zealand was 42.4C in Rangiora on February 7, 1973, when Ruatoria's 39.2C became the hottest recorded in the North Island.

Temperatures in New Zealand have passed 40C on only two other days - January 22, 1908, and February 6, 2011 (when the Hawke's Bay peak was Hastings' 33.8C) - but 2013 was the warmest year on record in New Zealand since 1928, based on mean and average temperatures across the 12 months.

Temperatures have been more consistent with Hawke's Bay's place in statistics for the most consistent summer temperatures, which were highlighted in mean daily maximum temperatures assessed over the 30 years from 1981 to 1980 inclusive.

Napier's mean of 24.5C was third among Kiwi cities and towns, behind only Central Otago town Alexandra at 25.1C and Gisborne at 24.6C.