Hot weather for weekend to continue

Photo / Alan Gibson

Those looking for some relief from the hot days and nights of what MetService says is an unusually warm February will have to hold out a few more days, despite some predictions of rain or showers.

Temperatures above 30C are forecast over the weekend, but in Napier and Hastings it's not expected to dip below 22C at its worst.

It followed temperatures of well over 30C up and down the East Coast yesterday, particularly promising for such weekend events as the Mission Concert in Napier and the Wairoa Cup race day, both tomorrow.

Officially, the peak temperatures yesterday were 31.6C in Hastings and at Wairoa's airport recording station, while Napier's maximum was about 28C.

The official highest on the east coast of the North Island was 33.9C in Masterton.

One unofficial peak was recorded on website Wairoa Weather, listing a maximum for the town of 36.6C at 3.44pm - a rise of 4C in half an hour and preceding a near-immediate drop back to 34.6C.

MetService meteorologist Emma Blades said that peak was however unlikely, because temperatures elsewhere in the region from Wairarapa to Gisborne were steadily rising.

But Barry Gasson, of Wairoa Autobodies and a veteran volunteer firemen in the town, looked at his thermometer and said: "It's 34C, and that's in the coolest place around here."

Weather website AccuWeather was posting a maximum of 32C in Waipukurau.

Metservice meteorologist Emma Blades said that while some showers were forecast over the weekend, the weather would remain "dry" and it could be midweek before stifling overnight temperatures would start to get cooler.